Abstrakt
The paper discusses current research in the field of transitology, drawing principally on the works of Linz, Merkel, Stepan and von Beyme. Through a theoretical discussion of the different transition models and criteria of a successful transition to democracy, it argues that far a transition to be successful, it is necessary to include into the criteria the time element.
On the basis of the time argument the paper further focuses on the empirical cases of the Visegrad group and claims that the countries in question (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and Hungary) cannot be, quarter of a century after the fall of the iron curtain, considered as examples of a successful transition. Drawing on political development in these countries the paper claims that the rise of strong leaders in the past decade (Babis, Meciar, Fico, Orban), continuous changes in the electoral and constitutional systems and diagonal concentration of power, including the media, by a concentrated group of entrepreneurs has led to a diversion from the path to a consolidated democracy.
The paper argues that this diversion has its cause in the absence of trust in democratic institutions from the electorate and can lead to a return of authoritarianism if democratic principles are not respected by the elected strong leaders. The paper concludes that for a democracy to be considered to be consolidated the establishment of democratic institutions and respect of the rule of law is not satisfactory, these criteria must be watched and respected for a minimal time span, which the paper argues to be at least five consecutive elections to legislative bodies.