is reserved for public, poliitcal life. Samek goes on to say, "in order to live fully, we have to live both in the public and private sphere. We didn't live fully in half our being."Vaclav Havel, the current President, acknowledges the current mood of the citizens and characterizes it as, grim. 4 Deutsche Presse-Agentur, dec. 9, 1997 However, Havel places the blame for the prevailing atmosphere on the political elites themselves, We acted like top-of-the-class pupils who think they have a right to look down on others and tell everyone how to do things. (Deutsche) Havel names the Prime Minister, Vaclav Klaus, as the perpetrator in fostering a political culture that encourages cronyism (Deutsch) The Communist Party was often characterized by its unresponsiveness to citizens concerns, and their arrogant style of their authoritarian rule. Under the guise of constitutional democracy, many, including Havel, feel that the political elites of the last decade are guilty of the same shameful behavior. Constitutional safeguards, institutionalized represenation dont mean anything unless the political elites abide by the rules of democracy. The quality of democratic accountability and responsiveness...hinges on the resources, skills, and dispositions of citizens and politicians as well as the specific design of constitutinoal and electoral rules that govern the inter-play between electoral constituenciers and their representatives"5 Post-Communist party systems, herbert kitschelt, cambridge u press, cambridge, 1999, pg. 43 If one part of this equation is missing, then a viable democracy cannot be sustained. Recent research shows that the governing politicians do not always respect the views of their constituents, much like under the Communist regime. According to this research, "on economic issues, governments' central tendencies are particularly out of line with the mean voter in Bulgaria and the Czech Republic," (Post-Communist Part...
