Twenty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism, America.gov, as part of its feature “The Evolving Work of Democracy,” is asking academics and journalists from the United States and elsewhere to comment on the challenges to democracy that still lay ahead for countries of the former Eastern Bloc. What follows are their responses – and yours are welcome as well.

What is the greatest challenge to democracy in the Czech Republic?

The Czech Republic has an impressive record of democratic governance in a region that for the most part did not easily embrace democracy. As a part of the Austrian half of the Habsburg Empire it was exposed to a more liberal political system than other Central European societies living under more authoritarian regimes. During the interwar period, Czechoslovakia, led by Presidents Masaryk and Benesz, achieved a level of democracy far in advance of the regional standard. In fact, in the late 1930s it was the only functioning democracy in the region.

Nazi and Soviet occupations that lasted until 1989 did considerable damage to the society’s democratic credentials. However, despite that fact, at the end of the communist era the Czechs (within the Czechoslovak state) were able to forge a civil-society-based opposition second only to Poland’s Solidarity movement.

The Czechs proved their ability for democratic governance and consensus decision-making by first overthrowing the communist regime in a peaceful transfer of power during the “Velvet Revolution” and later in a negotiated dissolution of Czechoslovakia that lead to the creation of the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic.

One has to admire the wisdom of the Czech political elites 20 years after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The country has an outstanding record of making a successful transition to a full-fledged democracy and a free market. Unlike some of its neighbors, the Czechs never embraced far-right parties with agendas that could have led to backsliding in market reforms and human rights. Prague has also been very active in promoting democracy and human rights abroad by taking the lead in supporting opposition in Cuba.

Minor challenges that the country may face in the future are connected to the even split of public support for the Civic Democratic Party (ODS) and the Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD). That creates a situation where weak governments will have difficulty in effectively ruling the country, which in turn may sometimes lead the voters to look for simpler solutions. Corruption is still a problem (as in the other Central European states) in the Czech Republic as demonstrated by the recent scandal involving former prime minister and head of ODS Mirek Topolanek and his secret meeting in Tuscany with a group of businessmen. Minority rights are also a sensitive issue in the Czech Republic. Democracy may suffer if problems with the Roma population and German expellees become a political football.

Learn more about Michael Wyganowski.