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T1IE CZECHOSLOYAK REPU ULIC, 1918-1938

conscąucntly, coukl not appoint thc cabinct. Morc important, ho\vcvcr, was thc sccond considcration, which dcrivcd from gcnuinc fcar on thc part of thc Czech party leaders that Masaryk niight upset thc dclicalc balancc of power that they had succccdcd in cslablishing bctwccn thc political parlics.³⁰

Kramar cxpresscd thc hopc that Masaryk would stay “abovc thc clouds,”³¹ that is, stay aloof from thc rough and tumbie of polilics and content himsclf with a rcpresentativc role as president. lt would havc bccn pcrfectly honorable for Masaryk to do so. Morc than any other Czech or Slovak lic had contributcd to thc liberation of his pcoplc. The task was now complctcd. He was almost sixty-nine ycars old. To rest on his laurels, as it were, would havc entailed no loss of prestige for him. It was not in Masaryk’s temperament to be a figurchcad, howcvcr. Ali his life he had been an activist, combining scholarship and politics in rough-ly cqual proportions. Although liberated, Czechoslovakia still faccd many domestic difficulties and forcign pcrils. During his cxile Masaryk had acąuircd much valuablc experience and was gcnuinely convinced that he still had much to contribute to his country’s development. Upon liis return to Praguc on December 21, 1918, he expresscd dissatisfaction with the inferior position allotted him in the provisional constitution. His demand for extcnsion of his powers was eventually met, in May, 1919, albeit not without considcrablc opposition in thc National Asscmbly.³²

The provisional constitution, which had been largely prepared by a Social Democratic member of the National Committee, Alfred Meissner, was by no mcans a complctc constitutional charter. It containcd no pro-vision for judicial power and had no list of rights ancl duties of citizcns. Yct it includcd and fully set out all thc principles wliich charactcrizcd thc definitive constitution of 1920. Whilc the provisional constitution repre-sented an cxtcnsion of Western constitulionalism into East Central Europę, its terms stemmed prcdominanUy from thc political and social realities that prevailed in thc Czech provinccs at the time.

From a democratic point of view thc provisional constitution suflcrcd froin two shorteomings. First, it was not adopted by an elcctcd body but was unilaterally imposed by the National Committee. In fact, with cer-tain modifications, it providcd for thc organization of a provisional na-tional assembly in the same manner as the National Committee. The Czech parties were represented in the National Asscmbly on thc basis

³⁰    Pcroulka, Budovdni sialu, i, 255.

³¹    Ibid., p. 253.

32    See Act of May 23, 1919, No. 271, in Sbirka zakonu a nanzeni [Colleclion of Acts and Ordinances]. For a discussion of the amendment, sce Pcroutka, Budoyani sialu, n, 914-19, and Emil Sobota et al., Ceskoslovensky president Republiky [President of the Czechoslovak Republic] (Prague, 1934), p. 110.

of thcir clcclional strcngth in thc last Rcichsrat clcctions in 1911 and the Slovaks by forty (later fifty-four) membcrs.¹ Czcchoslovakia’s national minorilics wcrc not rcprcscnled in thc National Asscmbly at all. As for thc lhanncr in which thc mcmbcrs wcrc sclcctcd, thc Czech representa-tivcs wcrc choscn by thcir rcspcctive party cxccutivc committees wliile thc Slovaks were sclcctcd in a somewhat arbitrary manner which will bc dcscribcd later. This proceduro for organizing thc National Asscmbly was justilied by thc confuscd condilions tlicn prcvailing in parts of Czechoslovakia which preeluded the holding of popular clcctions: thc Hungarians licld parts of Slovakia until January, 1919, and again from April to June, 1919, when thc Hungarian Red Army invadcd it; the Poles occupicd a part of Silesia; and the Germans in the Czech provinccs refuscd to recognizc the authority of the Czechoslovak govcrnment and cooperatc with it until the signing of the Peace of St. Germain in Septem-ber, 1919. In these circumstanccs, the argument that the National Asscmbly, though not a product of a popular vote, was at least pardy “based on clcctions in the executive committees of individual parties” carried sonie weight.²

The sccond shorteoming of the provisional constitution was that it endowed thc provisional National Asscmbly with thc prcrogatives of a constituent assembly, that is, with the right to draft and adopt a perma-nent constitution. The only basis for this grcatly cxtended compctcncc of thc National Assembly was the right of revolution. The motivation of the provisional (“revolutionary”) National Asscmbly was best cxprcssed by Fcrdinand Pcroutka, thc forcmost historian of Czcchoslovakia’s foun-dation, who wrotc that “thc Czech leaders were obviously determined to imposc on all State institutions thcir political will which, they sincercly belicvcd, was idcntical with that of thc wholc liberated nation.”³

The provisional constitution went into ellect on Novcnibcr 14, 1918, when thc provisional National Asscmbly hcld ils lirst mccling in Praguc,

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1

   In its finał composition, thc provisional National Asscmbly had 268 members, who wcrc divided into seven parliamentary clubs. The Agrarian Club had 55 membcrs and was thc largest. It was closely followcd by that of thc Social Dcmo-crals, with 53 members, and of the Stulc-Kights Dcmocrats (later National Dcm-ocrats), with 46 mcmbcrs. The Czech Socialists (lalcr National Socialists) had 29, thc Czechosloyak Populist party 24, and thc Czech Progressive party 6 repre-sentatives. The Slovak Club had 53 membcrs. The clubs of the Czech Socialists and of thc Czech l’rogrcssivcs combined into one. Sec Karol Laco, Ostaya predmnichoyskej CSR a ustaya CSSR [The Constilulions of the pre-Mumch Czcchosloyak Iiepublic and of the Czechosloyak Socialist Republić] (Bratislava 1965), p. 204.

2

   Scc Nurodni shromdzdeni Ceskosloycnskć Rcpnbliky | prvćm roce Republiky [The National Assembly of the Czechosloyak Republić in the First Year of the Republić] (Praguc, 1919), p. 61.

3

   Peroutka, liudovdnt s/dtu, i, 247.