Between reform and revolution

In 1989 Timothy Garton Ash introduced the neologism "refolution" to charact erize the paradoxical character of the rapid and unforeseen radical changes in "Eastern Europe". In the first part of the paper, Kis discusses continu ity and discontinuity of the legal and constitutional order in the process of transformation towards a parliamentary democracy on the one hand, the co nfiguration of political actors of the establishment and the opposition on the other hand, and develops a conceptual frame of reference which allows t o analyse "coordinated transitions". These are defined as an autonomous typ e of structural change, which seems to be more likely than radical revoluti ons in developed industrial societies in the second half of the 20th centur y. In the second part, the author presents five hypotheses concerning the c onditions, which might induce political actors to favour the option of a co ordinated transition to those of revolution or reform.