Czechs, in a political impasse, suddenly find democracy a puzzle - Europe - International Herald Tribune
This small Central European country — which 17 years ago, while still part of Czechoslovakia, slid so softly from communism to capitalism that its transition was called the Velvet Revolution — is suddenly finding democracy something of a puzzle. The combination of a backstabbing political culture and a parliamentary system that provides no tie- breaker in the case of an evenly divided legislature has left the country on autopilot since national elections in June.

Why does the author need to resort to this unnecessary and untrue formula if he has the following quote right underneath?

The crisis shows how far the region's post-communist political culture has to go before it is mature, but it also indicates that the area's political systems are remarkably secure.

"The constitutional framework and the underlying institutions are strong enough for the country to keep running without a government," said Jiří Pehe, a political analyst here.

What I find so annoying about this supercilious nonsense is that so many Czechs actually believe it. I agree with Pehe. The current government crisis in the Czech Republic (a second one of this magnitude since 1993 - the other was in 1997 after a fall of the then Klaus government amid corruption scandals) is not an example of how weak and new the Czech democracy is but how strong and mature. Sure, the protracted political haggling is annoying but the country continues to function just as well as the US government did after it botched elections in 2000 and much better than it did in 1996 when its congress couldn't find enough consensus to agree on a budget to keep government offices open and had to send employees home. It is no worse than the ridiculously totalitarian Patriot Act in effect now or the massive corruption of the departing Republican leadership.

I myself would prefer a majority voting system but the current one has to recommend it. The situation is simple, just like the Americans were 2 and 6 years ago, the Czech electorate is about evenly split on most issues of importance. And instead of a group of extremists taking over by a razor thin (or as in 2000 negative) margin of the popular vote and ramming partisan reforms down the country's throat, the Czechs are patiently (with a lot of moaning and berating of the politicians, of course) taking their time to sort it out. If anybody should be chastised, it should be the reaganite Klaus, the compromise president, who  instead of rising above the fray, is siding with his original party. But that simply means that there is one or several in
Other than that the article actually does a pretty good job of describing what is happening in the country at the moment.

The problem is also more general - people in the 'old club' of democracies don't have enough self-reflection to see democracy for what it is - a godawful mess. Too many voices, too much data, not enough time or resources to devote to them. This becomes particularly dangerous when we try to start exporting it.