quality:corruption, linguistic:translation, structural:reformatting
Legacy and cultural representations

Without Dubček, Czechoslovakian reforms may have taken a more technocratic form that didn't include revival of Slovak culture and the opening of arts to more fluid and interdisciplinary forms that were exported by joint ventures and the diaspora of artists after the Soviet crackdown. Politically, the Prague Spring may have been more contained to Czechoslovakia. Many Soviet reformers, such as Sakharov, would have lacked the concrete inspiration that came from the reforms Dubček guided, particularly the revolt against stagnation. "The invasion of Prague started the true dissident movement in Russia. An abyss opened up between them and the system, which was a catastrophic harbinger of change. Without Prague, there would have been no perestroika."

Dubček's style of leadership, and the ultimate frustration of his program by Soviet intervention, also had a deep impact on the development and orientation of communist and socialist parties and thinkers in the west.

Dubček also left a legacy of might-have-beens and what-ifs. Historians and the public will continue to speculate what may have happened had he not died from a car crash or had his time in leadership of the Prague Spring not been interrupted by Soviet intervention. One obituary speculates that had he become the Slovak president, his influence over the new country would have charted a more immediately inclusive course toward Europe.

Dubček himself has been remembered in artistic representations in many cultures and times.

In 1984, French singer and songwriter Alice Dona had released a song named Le Jardinier de Bratislava with the lyrics written by Claude Lemesle, as an apolitical song about love and longing for freedom. The song was inspired by a trip of a French television crew to visit Dubček in his villa near Slavín, Bratislava. They were denied the access by the ŠtB secret police. The sole footage collected of Dubček was of him attending to his garden.

In 1990, the film Invasion, a dramatization of the Soviet invasion, was edited by producers to include translated commentary by Alexander Dubček responding to their interview about the events it portrays.

The movie titled Dubček, released in 2018, is the first film based on the life of Alexander Dubček. It is a Slovak historical movie whose main plot revolves around events related to the Warsaw Pact invasion.