Remembering the bad old days: Human rights, economic conditions, and democratic performance in transitional regimes

Using the natural laboratory of 18 post-communist Central and Eastern Europ ean countries, this article presents a basic model for democratic transitio n, specifically testing two alternative explanations for the degree of citi zen satisfaction with the performance of their fledgling democracies: (1) v irtues of omission , which include bad actions from which the state refrain s, namely violations of individual human rights, and (2) virtues of commiss ion , which include positive state actions, in particular actions enhancing economic well-being. The findings clearly indicate that, during the transi tion period citizens' sense of the condition of human rights is consistentl y more important than are perceived economic prospects as predictors of dem ocratic performance.