Foreign Democracy Assistance in the Czech and Slovak Transitions: What Lessons for the Arab World?

Abstract

After the imposion of the authoritarian regime in 1989, Czechoslovakia received numerous types of assistance from Western donors. In the wake of 2011 Arab Spring the reformers in the region and Western donors expressed interest in learning from the CEEs experience with Western donors.

This paper explores the the paralells between the developments in the CEE and MENA and identifies mistakes that should be avoided in the future of democracy assistance.

Keywords

• democracy
• CEE
• 1989
• Czechoslovakia, Arab Spring, transition
• assistance