As interdependence and interconnection on the planet become ever-more apparent, new challenges and conflicts arise for individuals and for the role of government. We stand at a moment of transition in which the entire capitalist system is transforming into something else. It is only in crisis, however, that actors have the most freedom of action, because when a system operates smoothly behaviour is determined by the nature of the structure. At moments of transition, individual and collective action become more meaningful, and the transition period to a new structure is more open to human intervention and creativity. This can also be a precarious time of great uncertainty for individuals, states and societies, particularly new and fragile democracies like in East Central Europe, paradoxically providing the potential for empowerment while, at the same time, making them vulnerable to forces of the old system which cling to waning power, in the face of inevitable change, often through coercion.