As Europe enters its eighteenth year since the fall of communism there seems to be a noticeable increase in ideological polarisation along economic, nationalist and geopolitical lines.
Four countries - Estonia, France, Turkey, and Ukraine - are all experiencing major paradigm shifts at the moment. Although the parallels may be elusive and each society’s concerns are quite different, great changes seem to be in the making.
The key question that seems to be relevant in all European countries is whether the democratic values that led to the demise of communism and inspired so many countries are in themselves able to inspire future generations. With so many failures and disappointments cynicism is now setting in and many countries are beginning to review their democratic frameworks.
Secularism v democracy
Most paradoxical of all are the current political developments in Ukraine's southern neighbour Turkey. A model Muslim democracy, Turkey faces the uncomfortable dilemma of having to defend its strict separation of state and religion.
Turkey's secular establishment has once again had to rely on pressure from the non-democratic military to avert the popular rise of the Islam-rooted AK party, which sought to appoint its own candidate as President - a position traditionally held by staunch secularists.
Echoing the developments in Ukraine, the appointment by the Turkish parliament of the AK party's presidential candidate was blocked by Turkey's Constitutional Court which subsequently triggered an early election, now scheduled for July.
The conflict between the secularist and Islamist camps could still be resolved democratically, but the Turkish military has made no secret of its willingness to use force should Islamist elements attempt to take the Presidency. The military’s basic argument is that secular values are more important than those of democracy.
Europe's muted response and somewhat perfunctory condemnation of military interventionism suggests that Turkey's argument rings true even in mature European democracies. With Islamic fundementalism arguably now the most serious strategic threat facing Western Europe, it is hard not to have some sympathy with Turkey's staunch defense of secular values even if it means that democracy is compromised.
The end of romance
Similar challenges to the current ideological framework are also afoot in Estonia. The decision to relocate a Soviet-era military monument by the country’s popular right-wing government sparked a disproportionate reaction both in Moscow and among local ethnic Russians. Violent protests and looting ignored pleas for restraint and some respect for Estonia's argument that the monument was not desecrated but simply moved from a busy street to a quiet military cemetery.
Meanwhile, Russian authorities have imposed a de facto economic embargo on Estonia while launching scathing verbal attacks on what was ultimately an Estonian sovereign policy decision.
While Estonia has played its hand badly by ignoring Russia's sensitivities, Moscow's heavy-handed response is further evidence that the post-Soviet democratic romance is over.
Russia no longer wishes to indulge any of its former Soviet republics in friendly debate and mutual understanding. On the contrary, it seeks to impose its own version of events, which increasingly resembles the old Soviet version of history.
Democracy, which has given Estonia so much in terms of economic development, has thus far failed to help it settle scores with the nominally democratic Russia. Meanwhile, the riots in Tallinn have exposed a stark reality of how little Estonia's democratic process has done to truly integrate the country's Russian minority.
New political values
This clash of values and widely diverging perspectives is a fresh reminder that although democracy is the only system that ensures peaceful co-habitation of different-minded people, it has nevertheless failed to articulate a clear framework of values which can ensure national and international consensus.
Democracy is a system designed to protect against totalitarianism, where everyone is forced to follow one set of doctrines. As Isiah Berlin once argued, it provides freedom from, but not freedom to.
While such liberalism served Europe very well during the latter part of the 20th century in restraining it from wars of self-destruction, it has run into a cul-de-sac in the search for new political values.
The end of history which was announced by some thinkers on the eve of the collapse of communism was not quite the end Western politicians were hoping for. As the events in Turkey, Estonia and France are showing, a new period of European soul-searching is only just beginning.
