No exit: 'Nation-stateness' and democratization in the German Democratic Republic

A variable affecting the chances of regime exit - weak 'nation-stateness' - has often been overlooked. If a country enjoys no single, exclusive national identity, then democratic transition poses a threat to the survival of the state and the interests connected with it. The Honecker regime was unwilling to exit from communism -unlike Polish and Hungarian parties which negotiated democratic transition with the opposition - because it (rightly) feared for the survival of the German Democratic Republic. The GDR's 'national problem' also explains why the opposition did not demand power after the fall of the hardliners. Opposed to dictatorship, they nonetheless believed in many of the ideals upon which the state had been founded. These dissidents found they had more in common with reform communists trying to preserve the GDR than the majority of the population favouring unification.