Challenges Europe Faced After WWII

¶ … Europe Faced After World War II

The objective of this work in writing is to examine the challenges that Europe faced following World War II. This work will examine the fall of communism in 1991 and answer the question of how Europe has managed to transition away from communism.

World War II ending in Europe officially in May 1945 and although the war did come to an end the challenges faced by millions of individuals who were homeless "who had been displaced as a result of military action, deportation into labor or concentration camps, local racism and discriminiation or the relocation of national borders, were large ones indeed. (Gale Cengage Learning, nd, p.1) It is reported that the Allied governments and Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) relief groups were stretched to the limit in their "attempts to administer, feed and house a moving people searching for their lost families and a permanent home." (Gale Cengage Learning, nd, p.1)

Displaced Persons Rapid Repatriation Program

It is reported that a rapid repatriation program for Displaced Persons (DPs) was organized however many of these individuals either could not or alternatively would not return home. (Gale Cengage Learning, p.1) Another source states that following World War II that Europe had serious problems because "the populace was decimated, possible civil wars and rebellions were feared, economies were shattered, cities lay in ruins and famine loomed." (DeLong, 1997, p.1) In addition, the people of the European continent had been severely divided by the war and the outcome of the war was "a legacy of hatred and genocide." (DeLong, 1997, p.1) Another outcome of World War II for Europe was troubled economies and the United States is reported to have contributed approximately four billion dollars per year in the two years following World War II to Europe "for relief and construction through UNRRA and other programs." (DeLong, 1997, p.1)

It is reported that U.S. aid policy following World War II provided encouragement to European governments to seek investment-friendly policies. The result is that productivity is reported to have "…soared in the wake of financial stabilization and the advent of the Marshall Plan. The advantages of the cooperative equilibrium were suddenly clear. Within the group of reconstructing nations, those where the United States had most leverage had the fastest-growing economies." (DeLong, 1997, p.1)

II. 1991 -- Fall of Communism and Europe's Transition Away from Communism

Brown ( ) writes that the transition of Europe from Communism "has to be distinguished from transition to democracy. McFaul writes in the work entitled "The Fourth Wave of Democracy and Dictatorship: Noncooperative Transitions in the Postcommunist World" that there is not a "…single theory of transition [that] has been universally recognized, nor has an actor centric theory of democratization been formalized." (p.215) Brown writes that in Poland and Hungary the break from Communism took some time because the "stage of erosion fo the system was a lengthy one. After the breakthrough for all European Communist states in 1989 there was a stage of transition

"not just from Communism but to something different, the stage of reconstruction in the sense of constructing a new system. Transnational influences in that third stage have, of course, become increasingly obvious. After the crucial breaks with a Communist polity and a relatively isolated command economy were made, the political elites became ever more receptive to Western advice and the incentives offered by Western governments and Western-dominated international economic institutions." (Brown, 2000, p.6)

Brown states that the post-Communist economies