Reagans Revolution Unfinished Democracies in Danger

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Reagans Revolution Unfinished- Democracies in
Danger
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Why we Fought the Cold War

• Our way of Life was under existential threat
• 100s of millions of people were literally
  captives of a evil ideology

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Consequences of Victory

• Collapse of the USSR and the creation of new
  independent states
• The freeing of the captive nations, from the
  Baltics to the Balkans
• The whole-sale transition of nations to the
  market democracy model
• An end to Mutually Assured Destruction

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Budapest Paris of the East
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Hungary From Victory to Self-inflicted Defeat

• Happiest Barrack in the Bloc
• The Pannon Tiger. 5 GDP growth
• NATO EU membership
• Fiftieth Anniversary of the 56 Revolution

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Hungary in more Detail

• 1980s reform wing economic collapse nears
• The Iron Curtain breachs
• No Shock Therapy
• Cyclical Politics, nostalgia
• No Lustration

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The Survival of Communist Elites
For full details see www.itdis.org
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Communisms Legacy

• Fear
• "Uncle State "
• Tax evasion
• Old Boy Communist networks SS
• Politics without ideology
• " I cant change it anyway "
• The Land of No Consequences

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The Balatonoszöd Speech

• We lied for years. We lied about the economy
• This f..king country
• We have nothing we can be proud of.

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What Now?

• The victory of the Cold War was only partial
• Huge lessons remain unlearnt lessons relevant to
  anywhere where we want to see democracy take root
• Western foundations / individuals much re-engage
• The focus must be on the youth

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QUESTIONS?

• Sebestyen L. v. Gorka
• Founding Director
• Institute for Transitional Democracy
• International Security (ITDIS), and
• Director of Policy Studies, EICEE, Washington
• www.itdis.org www.eicee.org
• gorka_at_itdis.org