INSTITUTIONAL PROBLEMS OF TRANSITION IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA

In this three-part study, the author first of all looks at the problem s attending the transition of the institutions, the political, economi c and social structures of a totalitarian Czechoslovakia to a regime o f parliamentary democracy and a market economy, after the fall of the communist regime in Novembrer 1989. He then goes on to study the devel opment of discussions on the future of the upper tier of Czechoslovak federal institutions and the form they will take in the new Constituti on : the function and powers of the President of the Republic, of parl iament and the government, and their respective relationships within a democratic state. Despite the parliamentary elections of June 1992, w hich set the seal on the division of the Czechoslovak federation into two independent states, many of the conclusions of these discussions o n the institutional future of the federation have been used in the wor king-out of the Constitution of the Czech Republic, which was adopted at the end of 1992, and came into force on the 1st January, 1993.