Communism and its Dissolution

I. The Fall of Communist Regimes

            a. the ‘End of History’?

 II. Historical Features of Communist Regimes

             a. Command economies

            b. One-party rule

            c. Extensive internal security apparatus

 III. Stagnation and Decline

             a. Internal stagnation

                        i. Bureaucratic innefficency

                        ii. Unmet societal needs

                        iii. Geopolitical over social 

            b. External hostility

                        i. Geopolitical and innovative pressures 

            c. Historical contingency

                        i. Mikhail Gorbachev

                        ii. Glasnost and Perestroika 

IV. Revolution.

             a. Revolutions across Eastern bloc and collapse of Soviet Union

            b. Question of democratic character of transformation.