PRAGUE -- A week of flawless Indian summer weather diverts this bittersweet land of liberty from events and conditions auguring a long, anxious autumn. November will mark 20 years since the Velvet Revolution ended the Communist dictatorship, but the celebration is likely to be tempered by Czechs' disillusionment with the half-hearted promises of democracy and self-government, mutual security in military alliance with the United States, and the blessings of European unity.
Though it is supposed to be a showcase of democracy, with a constitution fine-tuned by the world's most erudite legal scholars comfortably compensated by the wealthiest foreign-aid bureaucracies, strictly speaking the Czech Republic does not have an elected government. A previous electoral stalemate resulted in a caretaker government of unelected bureaucrats. Parliament voted to dissolve itself and called early elections, and a national campaign began. Then the high court ruled this process unconstitutional. Today this city -- the breast that nursed Kafka -- is plastered with publicly-financed candidates' posters for an election that will not happen.
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