| Abstract: | The present article argues that the breakdown of the real‐socialist systems and their movement towards a ‘capitalist ‘‐oriented post‐socialist stage of development can be best analyzed within the general framework of the theory of modernization. The partial and deformed modernization characteristic of the (ex) real socialist societies in conjunction with the prevasive amongst the Eastern Europeans of a traditional unqualified egalitarian belief syndrome makes the transition to modernity and welfare‐state democracy even harder. |
