IS THE GLASS HALF FULL OR HALF EMPTY - REFLECTIONS ON 5 YEARS OF COMPETITIVE POLITICS IN EASTERN-EUROPE

This article explores the causes for the pervasive sentiment in contem porary Eastern Europe to the effect that ''it is democratic but it isn 't'', It begins with a discussion of the differences between ''procedu ral'' and ''substantive'' democracy, and finds that the institutions o f procedural democracy have proven surprisingly robust in the postcomm unist period, It then examines three variants of substantive democracy : liberal, national, and egalitarian, Each links democratic government to a particular social and economic order, none of which fully descri bes the actual situation within most states in the area, Finally, thes e distinctions between types of democracy are employed to illuminate t he dynamics of both policy choices regarding restitution and privatiza tion and electoral outcomes in the past half-decade. (C) 1997 The Rege nts of the University of California.