TRANSITION, CONSTITUTION-MAKING AND SEPARATION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

This article discusses political developments in Czechoslovakia and th e two successor states from November 1989 to the end of 1992. Three ma in topics are explored: the failure to write a new constitution for Cz echoslovakia, the breakup of the country, and the making of new consti tutions in the Czech and Slovak Republics. The author argues against t he view that the breakup of the Czechoslovak federation was analogus t o the breakup of the Yugoslav or Soviet federations. Instead be sugges ts the inherent instability of any two-member federation as the struct ural cause.