This article explores various dimensions of the issue of transition to democracy in East Central Europe, focusing on the question of how past experiences shape the process of modernization, political change and on the limits of democratization in the region. The first part reviews the relationship between the political crisis and processes of democratization in the region, arguing that new analytical categories are needed to account for different dimensions of the current transition process. The second part proposes a new framework for analyzing the impact of democratization, modernization and globalization concept. This call into question the generalization of models developed in democratic societies to the post-communist context and provides the basis for an alternative understanding of the process of globalization.