Czech democracy in the eyes of Czech political scientists

ABSTRACT

This paper surveys six recent Czech language books on the state of Czech democracy. The books are largely critical and identify four major problems: ineffectiveness, corruption, apolitical politics, and economic stagnation. The authors variously attribute these problems to institutions, culture, and public policy and accordingly recommend changes in these areas. While most of these claims ring true, lacking is both a consideration of positive qualities and empirical proof of the extent of these problems or the efficacy of the solutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Czech Republic
• democratic consolidation
• political culture
• postcommunism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Andrew Roberts is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Masaryk University. He is the author of The Quality of Democracy in Eastern Europe: Public Preferences and Policy Reforms (Cambridge 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic under the auspices of the project “The Quality of Democracy: The Czech Republic in Comparative Perspective” (GA 15-2274S).