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THE CZECIIOSLOVAK REPUHLIC. 1918-193S

nomie liberalism, they bccamc the party of big businessmen, bankers, industrinlists, and the emerging Czech upper class gcncrally.

Tiie defeat of the National Dcmocratic party in the 1920 parliamen-tary elections initiated the proccss of its gradual disintegration. On scv-cral occasions the National Dcmocrats joincd the govcrnmcnt coalition, but their policics were inarked by implacable opposition to Masaryk and Benes. This attitude alienated from the party many of its most talcntcd members. Its decline was strikingly revealed in the 1935 parliamentary elections, in which it combined with cxtrcmc chauvinistic groups and ran under the name⁷⁰ National Union (Narodni sjcdnoccni). Vie\vcd in ret-rospect, the progressivc decline and deterioration of the National Dcmocrats worked to the disadvantagc of the Czechoslovak system of democ-racy—it deprived it of a genuinc conservativc party necessary for the maintenancc of internal political cquilibrium.

Of the minor Czcchoslovak parties, many of which were cphcmeral, the most important was the Tradesmen’s party (Żivnostenska strana).⁷¹ It originated in 1920 to represent the class and professional interests of smali businessmen and tradesmen which were threatened, on the one hand, by the socialist parties representing labor and, on the other, by the National Dcmocrats representing big business. The Tradesmcn’s party cooperated closely with the agrarians.

Most of the German parties were constituted in the coursc of 1919 on the basis of prewar political groupings.⁷³ Their ncw alignment parallclcd that of the Czcchoslovak parties, with a greater emphasis on the national issuc. The Hungarian minority was originally dividcd into scvcral parties based on class or religion, which originated bcforc the war. Gradually, liowcvcr, the Hungarian parties were uniled into a national coalition.⁷³ The Polish minority showed a similar trend.⁷⁴ Among the Ruthcnes, wito did not clect their first rcprcscntativcs into the Praguc National Asscm-bly until 1924, the Communist party established an asccndancy which it maintained (with the exccption of the elections of 1929) to the end of the First Republic.⁷⁸

The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunisticka strana Ccs-koslovenska—KSC) stood apart from all tlić other parties and repre-

^T0 Alena Gaj;inova, Dvoji tvdr: Z historie prednmichorskeho Jasi.111111 [7'it’O-Face; Out of the flistory of pre-Munich Fascisrn] (Praguc, 1962), pp. 45-46 and 111-12.

⁷¹    Chmelar, Political Parties, pp. 27-28.

⁷²    Ibid., pp. 65-77; J. W. Bruegel’s chapter below.

⁷³    Chmelar, Political Parties, pp. 78-83; and Macartncy, Hangary and her Suc-cessors, p. 118.

^T* Chmelar, Political Parties, pp. 83-85.

⁷⁸ Ibid., pp. 89-95; and Macartncy, llungary and her Successors, p. 240.

DEMOCRACY AND ITS P ROD LEM S, 1918-1920

scntcd all the nationalitics in the country.⁷" Cvcn bcforc the communists forraally conslitutcd themseWcs a party in 1921, they existed as the Marxian lcft within the Social Dcmocratic party. In the first National As-scmbly clcctcd under the Constitution of 1920, eightcen lcftist Social Dcmocrats foundcd an independent club, the Left-Wing Social Democ-racy. This taclic was bascd on the hope of infillrating the Social Dcmocratic party and guiding it into the Communist (Third) International in Moscow. Howcvcr, the tactic failcd.The party split. Though much dimin-ished, the Social Dcmocrats continued.

The communists’ intention to rcmain a mass party determined the naturo of their policics. It cnablcd the party to pose as the main repre-sentative of the idea of social justice, thus attracting support not dnly from the masses but also from a rclativcly large group of the intclligcnt-sia, including sonie of the leading Czech litercili. At the same timc insist-encc on rcmaining a large party rcsulted in lack of revolutionary elan and in doctrinal flabbincss, for which the party’s leadership was rcgularly criticizcd at the Comintcrn congrcsses. This was a scrious dcfect from the point of vicw of Sovict-type communism. Its seriousness was in-crcased by the atmosphcrc of political freedom in Czechoslovakia, which was not propitious to the growth of rcvolutionary ardor. The party was allowcd to pursue a totally antagonistic policy toward the Czechoslovak Republic, without fear of reprisals or suppression. Morę often than not, the party's fiery words were not accompanicd by action.

Parties, Men, and Politics in Slovakia

Following the practicc in the Austrian Rcichsrat, parties in the Czecho-slovak provisional National Asscmbly organized themselvcs into par-ltaincntary “clubs” for the purpose of caucusing. Mcmbers of the clubs were subjcct to a rigorous disciplinc and votcd en bloc. Since the Slovak National party was the only Slovak political party in the immediate post-war period, all Slovak deputics were organized into a single “Slovak Club” and subjcctcd to a single disciplinc. The Hlasists provided the leadership of the club and cntircly dominated its tactics.

In his opening address to the National Asscmbly on November 14, 1918, Primo Minister Kramaf defincd Czcchoslovakia as a “Czech state” and wclcomcd the Slovaks as long lost sous who had “returncd to the nation’s fold, where tliey bclong."⁷⁷ At first, the Slovaks in the National

1| Chmelar, Political Parties, pp. 44-49; Paul Reimann et ai, Dejiny Koinu-nistickć strony Ccskoslovenska [Ilistory oj the Communist Party of Czcchoslo-vakia] (Prague, 1961), pp, 143-76.

^7T Soukup, 28. fijen 1918, u, 1127.

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