Twenty Years after the Iron Curtain: The Czech Republic in Transition
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2010 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Juniata Voices |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://www.juniata.edu/services/jcpress/voices/ |
| Field | Political sciences |
| Keywords | civil society; communism; democratization; political culture; political institutions; totalitarian regime; transition |
| Description | In November last year the Czech Republic commemorated twenty years after the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia. The twentieth anniversary invites thoughts, many times troubling, on how far have the Czechs advanced on their path from a totalitarian regime to a pluralistic democracy. The paper summarizes and evaluates the process of democratization of political institutions, transition from a centrally planned to a free market economy, and transformation of the civil society. Although political and economic transition has been at large accomplished, democratization of civil society is a road yet to be taken. The paper primarily focuses on causes accounting for failures, incomplete missions, and rocks that have constantly blocked the road of transformation from a closed to a truly open and autonomous civil society unburdened with the communist past. |