ope socialist bloc in the summer of 1989 are, more than anything else, a rejection of one-party rule. In the Eastern European socialist bloc, Communist Party parliamentary majorities had been constitutionally institutionalized. With these institutionalized parliamentary majorities, the various national Communist parties manipulated the power of government to repress political dissent, and to impose a rigid centrally planned economic regime. The more-or-less peaceful political revolutions occurring in the Eastern European socialist countries represent a rejection of one-party government, and particularly institutionalized one-party rule to a much greater extent than they represent a rejection of communism per se, and, most certainly, to a greater extent than they represent an outright rejection of socialism. To be sure, however, great dissatisfaction existed and continues to exist among the populations of these countries with both communism specifically and socialism generally. The political and economic systems which replace communism and socialism, however, must provide noticeable improvements, if communism and socialism are not to return to Eastern Europe. The political system which is being displaced in the Eastern European socialist bloc is the system of institutionalized one-party rule. The one party in this case is the Communist Party. Thus, the cen
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