AHC: At least one Eastern Bloc state goes non-democratic

Your challenge here is, with a POD in 1989 or later, to have at least one state of the Eastern Bloc be non-democratic by 2017. And it can't stay communist either. "Non-democratic" means generally all forms of dictatorship - the state must be at least a hybrid regime and be in the lower half of the Democracy Index of 2016.

The more dictatorial/totalitarian, the more bonus points you get.

I, by the way, always thought of the possibility of Poland becoming an extreme Catholic theocracy akin to OTL Iran (or even Saudi-Arabia?), but I don't know how plausible this is.
 
But a number of former Eastern Bloc states became generic dictatorships or at least highly flawed democracies. I'm a bit confused by the prompt.
 

BigBlueBox

Banned
Your challenge here is, with a POD in 1989 or later, to have at least one state of the Eastern Bloc be non-democratic by 2017. And it can't stay communist either. "Non-democratic" means generally all forms of dictatorship - the state must be at least a hybrid regime and be in the lower half of the Democracy Index of 2016.

The more dictatorial/totalitarian, the more bonus points you get.

I, by the way, always thought of the possibility of Poland becoming an extreme Catholic theocracy akin to OTL Iran (or even Saudi-Arabia?), but I don't know how plausible this is.
An extreme Catholic theocracy is impossible because the Pope could just excommunicate their leaders, destroying all of their credibility. Even without this fact, a theocratic regime in Poland is even less likely than the Handmaid's Tale becoming true in America.

The closest you could get is some kind of fascism with religious overtones, like Franco's Spain.
Edit: Even Franco's Spain had the tacit acceptance of the Church. I highly doubt John Paul II would tolerate a fascist regime in his own homeland.
 
Last edited:
But a number of former Eastern Bloc states became generic dictatorships or at least highly flawed democracies. I'm a bit confused by the prompt.
I guess his challenge was about the Soviet satellite states in Europe. His fair game would've been the GDR, Poland, CSSR or successors, Romania, Bulgaria and maybe even Albania. SFR Yugoslavia with successor may also count.
That most post-Soviet states save for the Baltics are or used to be hybrid regimes is a matter of course. The USSR was of course a Bloc state, yet it was a hegemon and not a puppet.
 
Albania was still communist up until 1998. If you want more recent, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
Don't forget Transdnistria.

Belarus could go more authoritarian. Depending on how the USSR falls you could probably have military juntas either in control of Russia or Ukraine. Bulgaria could go monarchists, Tsar Simon II was elected PM so it's not totally ASB. Poland could try and break off a little early, and maybe a little violently, which could give you a Nationalist or a military government. I don't see how the GDR could surive past '91 without going full DPRK, which would create other problems.
 
Albania was still communist up until 1998. If you want more recent, Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
What's the point of commenting about alternate history when you are ignorant of real history?

Bulgaria could go monarchists, Tsar Simon II was elected PM so it's not totally ASB.
Bulgaria becoming a monarchy does not mean that it would be non-democratic - in fact it would be utterly impossible to be so, since Sakskoburggotski could have been restored to the position only in a peaceful, constitutional manner.
 
If the USSR manages to reform a bit and survive (minus the baltic states), i could see them supporting at least one North Korea-like state in the former Warsaw Pact region. Ceausescu's Romania comes to mind.
 
If the USSR manages to reform a bit and survive (minus the baltic states), i could see them supporting at least one North Korea-like state in the former Warsaw Pact region. Ceausescu's Romania comes to mind.
I was actually going to bring up Romania as a candidate, given its tendency to be autonomous within the WarPact.
 
What's the point of commenting about alternate history when you are ignorant of real history?


Pardon me? It was a typo. I meant 1991 which is post 1989. And the corruption that followed with the Democratic Party leading to a civil war HARDLY sounds democratic.

Maybe learn to be a tad more academic when discovering an error. I was wrong. That is what a MATURE person acts like. The latter parts of my post are accurate. You'll have a short stay here if you keep up with that attitude.
 
Last edited:
[QUOTE="thezerech, post: 15508747, member: 70616"Bulgaria could go monarchists, Tsar Simon II was elected PM so it's not totally ASB.[/QUOTE]

Monarchy is not same as dictatorship. All current European monarchies are democracies too. So if Bulgaria would had restored monarchy, it surely would has been democratic nation too.

Belarus and Russia in some degrees are already dictatorship. If you want someone which weren't part of USSR Poland and Hungary currently are very close of dictatorships.
 
Your challenge here is, with a POD in 1989 or later, to have at least one state of the Eastern Bloc be non-democratic by 2017. And it can't stay communist either.

North Korea - ideologically, they've already replaced marxism by juche, and economically, private market and some small scale business is allowed.
 

CaliGuy

Banned
That already happened. Belarus.
Don't forget Russia!

[QUOTE="thezerech, post: 15508747, member: 70616"Bulgaria could go monarchists, Tsar Simon II was elected PM so it's not totally ASB.

Monarchy is not same as dictatorship. All current European monarchies are democracies too. So if Bulgaria would had restored monarchy, it surely would has been democratic nation too.

Belarus and Russia in some degrees are already dictatorship. If you want someone which weren't part of USSR Poland and Hungary currently are very close of dictatorships.[/QUOTE]
I don't think that Hungary is any more of a dictatorship than Japan was during its decades of LDP dominance.

As for Poland, it has a long way to go before it reaches Russia's and Belarus's level.
 
Top