A Day in the Life of Post-Communist Europe

Abstract

One of the key problems of transitional constitutionalism in Central and Eastern Europe has been relatively weak support for rule-of-law institutions from citizens of the new democracies. Without appropriate ‘owners’, new institutions are of little use. A crucial task currently facing CEE democracies is therefore the formulation of politics and strategies that could help sustain the more thorough democratization of these societies. It is citizens who are essential to boosting the process of democratization, as representatives of civil society who support, and are involved in, various political initiatives, groups, and activities, the scope of which extends beyond political parties and parliamentary elections to encompass a number of other bottom-up associations and groups. The essay presents a couple of everyday scenes from the ‘post-Communist’ world aimed to capture the reality of everyday life of citizens and their interactions with various rule of law institutions and other situations in their social surroundings. The storylines presented below are those of our friends and acquaintances; they reveal their dilemmas, concerns and everyday thoughts.