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 facing democracy in the Czech Republic?

The Czech Republic has long been considered a success story among post-communist states. With free elections, a relatively high standard of living and a well-educated population, no hard feelings remaining from the “Velvet Divorce” from Slovakia in 1993, and (despite Euroscepticism in some quarters) European Union membership since 2004, the Czechs seem to have weathered the transition to democracy remarkably well. Though recent elections have produced divided parliaments, and the government of Mirek Topolánek fell to a no-confidence vote in the spring, even the current, nonpartisan “caretaker” government enjoys public support.

What, then, is one to make of the mind-numbing series of corruption scandals that has littered the Czech scene since the early 1990s? Preventing official malfeasance, of course, is a challenge to every democracy, but, looking to the area’s pre-communist political traditions, one would have expected the Czech Republic to earn a reputation for integrity in line with those of Austria or Slovenia, also descendants of the pre-1918 Habsburg monarchy.

Nowadays, however, Czech elected officials from prime ministers to small-town mayors, law enforcement officials and civil servants have been investigated for graft and conflict of interest, among other abuses. The most egregious cases stem from rigged competitions for public contracts, which have resulted in huge losses to the Czech taxpayer.

A large number of high-profile cases never come to a conclusion; no one is punished or exonerated. Obviously, a judiciary that bends to political pressures in such cases will only encourage more corruption.

Recently a new scandal erupted in the Czech media, as it emerged that the law faculty at the West Bohemian University in Plzen had granted dozens of degrees under suspicious circumstances, some to politicians and high officials of the judiciary and police. Commentators have raised concerns about the threat to state property and national security when top officials could be blackmailed over their false credentials.

Czech citizens are increasingly cynical over what they see as widespread corruption and improper ties among politicians, business elites and the court system. Indeed, three-quarters of Czechs polled believed that the Plzen law faculty scandal reflected an “organized judicial mafia.” Czech President Václav Klaus in a recent speech called attention to a growing distrust of politicians and state institutions. In a large poll, a majority of Czechs reported having witnessed some form of corruption, and 19 percent admitted to having accepted a bribe. The watchdog group Transparency International ranked the Czech Republic in 45th place among 180 countries in its most recent Corruption Perceptions Index.

Yet there is a positive side to the barrage of attention given to scandals in the Czech Republic. It points to free and vibrant media and unencumbered NGOs. Czech public officials accused of misconduct sometimes compare legitimate investigations to surveillance by the communist-era secret police. But it is the corruption itself that is in part a legacy of Czechoslovakia’s communist years, when theft from the state became a national pastime. A flawed post-communist transition also played its part; the anti-regulatory mood of the 1990s contributed not only to the large-scale swindles following coupon privatization, but also to weak laws against corruption. Finding the political will to strengthen and enforce anti-corruption legislation remains the greatest challenge to an otherwise thriving Czech democracy.

Katherine David-Fox is an independent scholar and consultant in Washington. She taught East European history at the University of Maryland and Ohio State University, and she holds a Ph.D. in history from Yale University.