Civil society in the post-Communist region is a topic of intense academic and political discussion; it is one aspect of the transition process that is most difficult to assess and perhaps the one that is the most crucial to its ultimate success. It has been criticised as being weak and under-developed in comparison to older, more “mature” democratic systems but given the unprecedented nature of transition and political and social development in Central Europe, it is perhaps too early for any kind of comparative analysis to be particularly helpful. However, several recent polls about attitudes towards politics and politicians in the Czech Republic help to give an interesting impression of contemporary civil society.

The transition process that developed in Czechoslovakia/the Czech Republic was largely dictated by Václav Klaus’ staunch defense of the market, the state and the individual as distinct and independent bodies; the concept of and the actual emergence of civil society was irrelevant to the process. Such an attitude was clearly in opposition to Václav Havel’s emphasis on civil society as a tool for democratisation and the basis of a truly democratic political system. Such a polarisation in attitudes towards the role of civil involvement is perhaps unsurprising, given the unprecedented situation of developing the organisations, relationships and interest required for a functioning civil society. But, arguably, a Klausite disinterest for civil society is visible in current Czech society.

Recent polls released in the Czech press are indicative of current attitudes towards the domestic political situation and indicate a change, in the decades since the transition process began, in attitudes towards politicians. That Czechs are placing more trust in the government than in the president, for the first time since November 1989, is perhaps unsurprising, given the country’s increasingly questionable stance in Europe during the president Klaus fiasco in signing the Lisbon Treaty and the negative attention that it brought. It seems a positive development that more trust is being placed in the government, as a Czech president’s position of relative symbolic power should not be forgotten in the face of the government’s accountability through direct electoral legitimation and responsibility.

But the most telling polls found that 87% of respondents were unsatisfied with the political situation in their country and that interest in politics has fallen since the 1990s. Political interest and involvement, measured in its most basic form, is telling; whereas during the period 1990 to 1999, around 90% of respondents claimed to discuss politics with friends on a regular basis, today less than 75% make that same claim. Furthermore, people attach less importance to politics and follow political developments less frequently. It is an interesting dichotomy, that a decline in political satisfaction is matched by a decline in political interest and seems to be indicative of a wider convergence with Western political developments.

The phenomenon of declining political participation in mature, consolidated democracies has been a staple of political theory and was popularised by Putnam’s 1995 “Bowling Alone” theory. What is perhaps surprising in the relatively negative perspectives presented in the recent polls on Czech attitudes towards politics and the indifference to political involvement is the perception that the Czech Republic, despite its obvious progress, it not yet in the position to call itself a mature, consolidated democracy such as those in Western Europe and North America; thus, it should not act like one. But if reference to research in other fields is admissible, it would be interesting to apply the argument made in a work on the evolution of Czech retail attitudes to the context of political attitudes. It has been argued that, in the case of shopping habits and attitudes, 50 years of gradual evolution has been condensed into 15 in the Czech context, due to the impact and influence of a globalised approach to retail services.

While comparative analysis between very different domestic contexts may not, at this stage, be a useful approach when assessing the development of domestic political attitudes, it may at least be an interesting exercise to analyse attitudes in one sphere for their relevance; just as it is possible to imagine that Czech retail habits have undergone radical transformation in a relatively short period of time, due to a globalised and interconnected environment, it is also possible that a similar process could be at work in the political sphere.

But while an accelerated convergence with generally accepted Western democratic norms, such as a decline in political participation, could be a valid explanation for the declining interest in and importance placed on politics in the Czech Republic, it does not make such findings particularly satisfactory. A rise in political indifference is lamentable in any context and, given the 20 year anniversary of the fall of Communism, it is a topic that is of particular relevance, not only in a regional but also a global context. In a recent speech to commemorate the anniversary, Václav Havel argued that,”[p]eople should engage in politics if they cannot watch it anymore, and they want it to be different.” Given the clear displeasure towards the Czech political situation and the lack of interest with which it is addressed, such words may seem a classically Havel formulation of the ideal; but with democracy and reform stagnating across the globe, it seems that an active and functioning civil society remains a relevant and necessary tool to shorten the gap between state and individual. A “Bowling Alone” approach has done little to strengthen and advance the state of democracy in supposedly “mature” democratic systems and it would be counter-intuitive to believe that such an attitude is beneficial to democratic newcomers.