Democratic Breakthroughs and Revolutions in Five Post-Communist ...

34The victory of democratic oppositions in Slovakia and Croatia convinced theirleaders of the need to temper executive power that had been abused during the Meciarand Tudjman competitive authoritarian regimes. In 2000, Croatia moved from a semipresidentialto a parliamentary system and from a bicameral into a unicameralparliament. Round table negotiations during the Orange Revolution led to a politicalcompromise within the ruling elites that included three elements: an unwrittenagreement on immunity from prosecution, reform of the election law andconstitutional reforms in 2006. These three elements were premised on theacknowledgement of Yushchenko’s certain victory in the re-run of round two of theelections. Yushchenko agreed to a pacted transition between softliners in the regimeand opposition, sidelining radicals in the opposition (Tymoshenko) and in the regime(Yanukovych). 27 Only the Tymoshenko bloc voted on 8 December 2004 against thecompromise package that grew out of the pacted transition sealed during round tablenegotiations. Constitutional reforms introduced two years later transformed Ukrainefrom the 1996 semi-presidential system to a parliamentary-presidential republic. ThePresident’s powers were reduced and transferred to the Prime Minister withgovernments no longer controlled by the executive but by parliamentary majorities.The first Prime Minister to benefit from these enhanced powers is Party of Regionsleader Yanukovych.ConclusionSlovakia re-joined ‘Europe’ relatively quickly following the 1998 democraticbreakthrough. This, in of itself, showed that Meciar’s populist nationalism was moreof an aberration than a factor that could permanently de-rail Slovakia’sdemocratization. Croatia has also quickly moved forward in capitalizing on its 1999-