INTERNATIONAL POLICY ANALYSIS Czech Republic: From Post-Communist Idealism to Economic Populism ONDŘEJ CÍSAŘ January 2017 n Although current political developments are often related to the mismanaged post­communist transformation, they are also determined by the way post-communist countries were integrated into the global economy. n We have witnessed the erosion of traditional political parties in the Czech Republic. This erosion was not framed in the language of cultural or political exceptionalism, such as illiberal democracy, but using the vocabulary of managerial and economic technocracy. n Although disappointment with democratisation is often blamed for the current mo­bilisation of populist leaders in Central-Eastern Europe, it is unclear whether this ten­dency can be seen only as a region-specific mechanism or whether we are entering a period characterised by a more general trend of growing support for anti-liberal and antidemocratic forces across the globe. This paper tends to argue the latter. n While there are three forms of populism in the Czech Republic(left-wing, right-wing and centrist varieties), the centrist managerial populism of Andrej Babiš is dominant. n To defeat the new radical populism in its many variations, the democratic left needs to articulate the interests that populists articulate, but to do so in a way that differs from them. In general, there is a need for a new political language that helps pro­gressive and inclusive political forces to articulate the substantiated fears of globali­sation’s losers. The democratic left needs to formulate a globalisation with a human face.