By the time of the major changeover in Eastern/Central Europe in1989-1991,democracy had become the only option, "the only game in town" Authoritarianism no longer had legitimacy as an option. We should say a few things about the transitions in East/central Europe even though these countries, already mainly Western and at least semi-developed, are not the main focus of this book. First, although social and economic changes parallel to those in Latin America and Asia had been occurring in these countries, the main precipitating factor in East/Central Europe was the collapse of the Soviet Union, which freed up these countries to follow their own independent-and, as it turned out,democratic-path Second, these countries are part of Europe and generally