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ALMOST TWO DECADES AGO, IN THE SPRING OF 1989, COMMUNISM IN EUROPE
died—collapsed, like a tent, itsmain post removed. The end was not brought
by war or revolution. The end was exhaustion. A new political regime was
born in its place across Central and Eastern Europe, the beginnings of a new
political society.
For constitutionalists (like me), this was a heady time. I had graduated
from law school in 1989, and in 1991 I began teaching at the University of
Chicago.At that time, Chicago had a center devoted to the study of the emerging
democracies in Central and Eastern Europe. I was a part of that center.
Over the next five years I spentmore hours on airplanes, andmoremornings
drinking bad coffee, than I care to remember.
Eastern and Central Europe were filled with Americans telling former
Communists how they should govern. The advice was endless.And silly. Some
of these visitors literally sold translated constitutions to the emerging constitutional
republics; the rest had innumerable half-baked ideas about how the
new nations should be governed. These Americans came froma nation where
constitutionalism seemed to work, yet they had no clue why.
The Center’s mission, however, was not to advise.We knew too little to
guide. Our aim was to watch and gather data about the transitions and how
they progressed.We wanted to understand the change, not direct it.
What we saw was striking, if understandable. Those first moments after
communism’s collapse were filled with antigovernmental passion—a surge of
anger directed against the state and against state regulation. Leave us alone,
the people seemed to say. Let the market and nongovernmental organizations—
a new society—take government’s place. After generations of communism,
this reaction was completely understandable
L A W R E N C E L E S S I G - Personal Name
2nd edition
13: 978–0–465–03914–
NONE
Lessig-Code
Management
English
Basic Books Inc
2006
USA
1-424
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