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TI1E CZECI10SL0VAK REPUDLIC, 1918-1938

ter dcprivcd him of much support from his own party. In the lali of 1919 Czcchośto vakia sufTered a serious sctback in its budgetary and monctary policics. The govcrnmcnt fclt compcllcd to introducc a salcs tax to im-prove its financial situation, despitc the fact that sales taxcs wcrc gen-erally regarded as socially unjust. In the International money markets the Czcchoslovak crown (koruna) lost six scvenths of its prewar value. The dcmands of tlić lcft-wing Social Democrats continued to increasc. In Oe-tober, the rcpresentatives of the lcft wing formally constitutcd thcmsclves a distinct body within the party, adopting the naine the Marxist Lcft, and endorsing the theoretical and practical theses of Bolshcvism.⁰⁰

POLITICAL PART1ES

The principal Czechoslovak political partics had their origins in the Czech provinces in the decades prior to 1918. The same was truć to a somcwliat lesser degree of the German political partics. The cmcrgcnce of organized partics as the real centcrs of power was a development that came about gradually in the first two ycars of Czcchoslovakia’s cxistcncc. In the course of 1919-20, the principal Czech partics cxtendcd their or-ganizational net to Slovakia and Ruthcnia. The Ruthcncs wcrc the most handicapped of all nationalitics of Czcchoslovakia. They had practically no political experience and wcrc foreed to organizc—not without sub-stantial Czech influence—their party life almost front scratch.

One of the main characteristics of Czcchoslovakia’s constitutional life was the large number of political partics. Their proliferation was causcd by a number of factors: great diversity in social background and culture, uneąual political experience, and considerations of religion.⁰¹ These factors found their expression in the adoption of proportional representa-tion in the electoral system. The almost mathematical precision with which proportional rcprcscntalion was applied ntadc possiblc a host of smali parties.

The demand for proportional representation had long been a Czech political demand in the Habsburg empire, because the Austrian electoral system was bascd on the majorily principlc and often rcsulted in gross distortion of Ute representation of the non-Gcrman nationalitics in the Reichsrat. The prescnce of rclatively large minoritics In Czcchoslovakia

⁰⁰    The Marxist Lcft called for the seizure of power by the wor¹ ing class, the socialization of means of production and distribution, and the crcation of workers* councils. lt also exprcsscd its agreement with the main principles of the Com-munist Third International (Cominlcrn), rejccting all snggcstions to rcsuscilate the Socialist Second International. Scc Peroulka, liueloruiii siani, iii, 1975-76, and 1’rehled, lii, 94-96.

⁰¹    Edward Taborsky, Czechoslovak Dcmocracy at Work (London, 1945), pp. 40-41 and 83-84.

DIZMOCRACY AND 1TS PROBLEMS, 1918-1920

creatcd a similar problem—only proportional representation appeared to be able to sccurc tlie minority rights ot the Germans, Hungarians, Poles, and olher national groups. The Czcchoslovak legislators adopted it as a matter ot basie justicc, thcrcforc, first in the law ot January 31, 1919, providing for local clections, and then in the constitutional laws of February 29, 1920, providing for parliamentary elcctions. lis pitfalls wcrc realized only latcr.

Vicwcd in retrospcct, and in comparison with other East Central Eu-ropcan countrics, the political party system in Czechoslovakia—espe-cially in so far as it conccrncd the major parties—remained rcmarkably stable. The dccisivc, fundamcntal changes on the political scene resulted frorn the appcarance of two alien totalitarian forces: Lntemational com-munism and German National Socialism. If one excludcs the German and Hungarian parties, the communists who were international, and the fascists who remained insignificant, seven major Czechoslovak parties figured in all four parliamentary elections. With the exccption of the period betwecn March, 1926, and November, 1929, five Czcchoslovak parties rcprcscntcd the backbone of the coalition governments. The lead-ing parties of dcmocratic Czcchoslovakia—unlikc thosc of the ncighbor-ing States—wcrc agreed as to the bases of political, economic, and social life of the country and also with regard to tactics. No doubt this char-actcristic was duc largely to the almost subconscious realization of the ethnically Czech osi ovak parties tliat their unity alone providcd for the continucd cxistencc of the Czcchoslovalc Republic.

The most stable political force and one of the pillars of the Czecho-slovak State was the agrarian party, which had emerged in the Czech provinces in the 1890's, still under Austrian rule.⁰² In 1922, when the Czech agrarians fused with the Slovak agrarians (the Slovak National Rcpublican and Peasant party), the common party assuined the name of Rcpublican Party of Farmcrs and Pcasants (Republikańska strana zemćdćlskeho a malorolnickeho lidu), but its members continucd to be known popularly as the agrarians. With the exception of landless rural laborers, many of whom were attracted by communism, the agrarians be-came the principal political spokesmen of Czcchoslovakia’s large agricul-tural population. Bccause of Svchla’s statesmanship, tlicy managed to combinc two oslcnsibly incompatible clcmcnts—the owners of large farms and the smali holdcrs, many of whom carned a prccarious living on dwarf farms. Svchla consciously built up his party on the support of smali and medium farmcrs, nevcr allowing the owners of large estates to dctcrminc agrarian policies. It was only at the beginning of 1928, when

⁰² Sce Table III in the appendix. For a succinct dcscription of the agrarian party, sce Joscf Chmelaf, Political Parties in Czechoslovakia (Praguc, 1926), pp. 31-35; and a vcry critical view, Kućera and Ku£erova. O agrarnicky siat, pp. 93-103.