BOOK REVIEW : ‘Summer Meditations’: Finely Crafted Musings of Unemotional Czech Dreamer : SUMMER MEDITATIONS, <i> By Vaclav Havel translated from the Czech by Paul Wilson,</i> Alfred A. Knopf, $20; 192 pages

I wore one of my prized possessions when I went to vote in the California primary this month: the “Vaclav Havel for President” button my husband brought back from a scientific meeting in Prague. “If only he were running here,” sighed the man behind me.

Now that two-thirds of Americans polled say they want a new President, the time has come for an idea I’ve had since I got the button a year ago. Let’s trade President Bush for President Havel.

Both countries could avoid the expense and bother of an election. We’re tired of Bush, but the Czechs could really use a pragmatist like him. When winter rolls around, Bush’s contacts in the oil industry would come in handy. Wasn’t Bush happy as a clam when he was a young capitalist setting up an oil business? He could relive the thrill by helping the Czechs build a market economy. And imagine how much more interesting August’s Republican convention would be if Bush announced that he and Barbara were booked on the next plane to Prague.

We could use a leader who values civility, who can write and speak beautifully, and who has the moral authority and compassion that come from having spent 4 1/2 years in jail. Havel also stacks up pretty well against Ross Perot: more patient, more modest, a greater believer in the democratic process, calmer, younger and a little taller.

The timing for the President-swap would be convenient. Because of Czechoslovakia’s own early June election, Havel soon will be looking for work. The big winner was Havel’s enemy, Vladimir Meciar, a former Communist who wants a separate Slovak state, doesn’t much fancy a Western-style market economy and plans to dump Havel.

Havel has a fresh enthusiasm for capitalism that many in the United States have lost. “Though my heart may be left of center,” he writes in “Summer Meditations,” “I have always known that the only economic system that works is a market economy, in which everything belongs to someone--which means that someone is responsible for everything.”

For voters in Czechoslovakia, the bright memory of Havel’s leadership in the Velvet Revolution of 1989, which brought free elections and an end to Communism, has been dimmed by the subsequent economic and constitutional mess. Havel’s persistent heroic stature outside his country is the reason this slim book of conversations and comments was published here, but readers looking for a call to the ramparts or a philosophical guide to living well will be disappointed.

What “Summer Meditations” is not is anything like Dag Hammerskold’s “Markings,” the inspirational musings of a charismatic European leader. It’s also not the memoir of someone who delights in describing how to use power. Havel is a dreamer; he likes to ponder things. He ponders in a cool and unemotional way, as those who have seen or read any of his 12 plays know. He has described his plays as “animated machines,” and doesn’t mind that many critics and actors find his stage work cool and calculated.

At its worst, the book has seemingly endless paragraphs beginning with such statements as, “What precisely do I mean by federalism?” One section starts: “An associational agreement with the European Community was signed on Dec. 16, 1991, in Brussels; it will be ratified in 1992 and should come into effect January 1, 1993.” The agreement represents “a great step forward that will have important long-term consequences,” he says, sounding distressingly like someone left over from the Communist Party.

What drama there is in “Summer Meditations” lies in Havel’s finely crafted sentences rather than in a compelling narrative drive. “If you are modest,” he writes, “and do not lust after power, not only are you suited to politics, you absolutely belong there.” It may not be true, but it’s a pretty sentence and a pretty thought.

Havel is a good writer and a good man, but this is not an immortal book. Still, it would be a treat to have in Washington, come January, a guy who can write sentences such as this one: “Genuine politics--politics worthy of the name, and the only politics I am willing to devote myself to--is simply a matter of serving those around us: serving the community and serving those who will come after us.”

And what a nice community he envisions. His dream for Czechoslovakia would translate nicely to Los Angeles: “Every main street will have at least two bakeries, two sweet-shops, two pubs and many other small shops, all privately owned and independent.” With Czech beer in every pub.

Last night I took another look at my prized campaign button, and it struck me as odd for the first time that it says “Vaclav Havel for President” on it. Why not “Vaclav Havel Pro Predseda”? Why did Havel, or his campaign manager or whoever, have them printed in English? Has Havel had it in mind to run here all along? If only it were true. . . .