How Czech Democracy Defies the Illiberal Trend

Abstract

Democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland has raised questions as to whether Czech politics would follow a similar path. Focusing on transformations in the country’s political system over the past decade, this article argues that Czech democracy has proved resilient and defied the Central European illiberal trend. The starkly divergent outcomes are attributable to differences that set the Czech political tradition apart from those of Poland and Hungary. The liberal, secular, and pluralist tendencies present in the Czech democratic myth have made it more difficult to form an ideologically based movement built around a national-religious conservative narrative challenging liberal democratic values.