Abstract
The global resurgence of political democratization that occurred in the early 1990s brought about many educational reforms in central and eastern Europe. Schooling in the communist era was highly centralized and proscribed, affecting all levels and aspects of the educational system. The main goal of the first wave of reforms after democratization was to remove the state's monopoly on education. One result of these reforms is a high degree of school choice. Many scholars charge that schooling in the region is undemocratic, yet when placed in a larger framework of democratic theory that emphasizes the key concepts of equity, choice, and diversity, schooling in post-communist Europe has many democratic aspects. Thus, democratization is a global phenomenon, but particular educational systems vary in their interpretation of it.
