Abstract
Until the end of the 1980s, approximately one third of the world's population lived in communist systems. But most of these systems collapsed like dominoes between 1989 and 1991. Many social scientists assumed that the old systems would be replaced by liberal democracies. In fact, whereas most of the states in Central and South East Europe have become democracies – some more successfully than others – most of those further east have mutated into autocracies of one kind or another. Furthermore, most postcommunist states experienced serious problems of various kinds in the 1990s, while some still are. This entry identifies the various trajectories taken by countries transitioning from communism, before noting that the world's most powerful remaining communist state, China, appears to have designs on bringing postcommunist states at least partly back into the fold, causing concern in many western capitals.