Czechia
Czechia is a parliamentary democracy in which political rights and civil liberties are generally respected. However, in recent years, the country has experienced several corruption scandals and political disputes that have hampered normal legislative activity.
Research & Recommendations
Czechia
| PR Political Rights | 37 40 |
| CL Civil Liberties | 58 60 |
Democratic resilience will increasingly depend on stronger coordination among countries that share a commitment to freedom, the rule of law, and accountable governance.
International support for democratic institutions, civil society, and independent media has been associated with modest but meaningful improvements in democratic governance, and it is far less costly than the military outlays necessitated by rising authoritarian aggression.
Young people are increasingly dissatisfied with democracy—not because they reject its principles, but because they see institutions failing to deliver on them. Programmatic work should create clear pathways for meaningful political participation, from voting and policy engagement to community organizing and public leadership, so that young people can translate their expectations into agency.
Czechia
| DEMOCRACY-PERCENTAGE Democracy Percentage | 75.60 100 |
| DEMOCRACY-SCORE Democracy Score | 5.54 7 |
Executive Summary
Developments in 2023 show Czechia to be a stable democracy, but also underlined some chronic issues it continues to face. The major event in domestic politics took place in January when Petr Pavel’s victory in the presidential election ended the 10-year tenure of his predecessor Miloš Zeman, whose term is remembered in Czechia for his antidemocratic tendencies. Zeman, a former social democrat, had adopted nationalist and populist rhetoric and, for most of his two terms in office, backed Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping.
The future of European democracy and security is now inextricably linked to the fate of Ukraine. European Union (EU) and NATO member states must not only invest far more—and more efficiently—in their collective defense, but also provide Ukraine with the assistance it needs to roll back Russian advances and build a durable democracy of its own.
In addition to defending the international order from emboldened autocrats, democratic governments must attend to democratic renewal within Europe, particularly among nascent democracies.
Military aggression from autocracies in the region has underscored the dangers of exclusion from democracy-based organizations like the EU and NATO, galvanizing the political will of policymakers in aspiring member states and generating further public pressure to undertake long-sought democratic reforms.