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Liberal Democracy in Czechoslovakia a Comparative Study of Political Practice and Democracy in the Czechoslovak Republics (1918-1948)

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Liberal Democracy in Czechoslovakia a Comparative Study of Political Practice and Democracy in the Czechoslovak Republics (1918-1948) ! Department of Political Science Chair of Comparative History of Political Systems Liberal Democracy in Czechoslovakia A Comparative Study of Political Practice and Democracy in the Czechoslovak Republics (1918-1948) SUPERVISOR Prof. Giovanni Orsina CO-SUPERVISOR Prof. Riccardo Cucciolla CANDIDATE Marco Scoppa Summer session, 2019/2020 !1 !2 Table of Contents Page Introduction 6 1. Nationalism, Czechoslovakism and Politics in Late Austria-Hungary 1.1 Three Nationalisms 15 1.2 Popular Representation in Austria-Hungary 19 2. WWI and the creation of Czechoslovakia 2.1 Activists abroad 23 2.2 Recognition of the Government in exile 27 3. Balance of powers 3.1 Two sources of legitimate power 32 3.2 Beneš takes over foreign policy - Slovakia, Italophilia and Francophilia 34 3.3 Beneš and Kramář in Paris 38 4. Building institutions 4.1 Committee and Council, evolutions 41 4.2 The Czechoslovak Constitution of 1920, social upheaval and Teschen 43 4.3 The birth of the Pětka and the consolidation of separated powers 47 5. Parliament between ethnocentric politics, bipolarism and consensual centrism 5.1 End of the all-national coalition 53 5.2 Fascists, Hungarians and Slovak autonomists 56 5.3 Minorities: domestic and international solutions to structural problems 63 6. The Economic Crisis of the 1930's and Bohemian Germans 6.1 Land reform and German industry 71 6.2 Radical German parties in Bohemia 74 6.3 Enabling laws 77 7. A series of crucial elections 7.1 Švehla’s authoritarian temptation 80 7.2 The effects on Czechoslovak foreign policy of the rise of Hitler and the SDP 83 7.3 The 1935 presidential elections 86 !3 8. Munich 8.1 Prelude 91 8.2 The end of the Republic 96 9. Second Republic, occupation and WWII 9.1 The Second Republic 102 9.2 The Protectorate and the Government in Exile 107 9.3 Planning the future state 112 10. The Third Republic and February 1948 10.1 Early developments 117 10.2 The Beneš decrees 120 10.3 New equilibria 122 10.4 The communist takeover 126 Conclusion 130 Bibliography 136 Summary 144 !4 Ci sono anche popoli-massa decisi a ribellarsi contro i grandi popoli creatori, quelle minoranze e quelle stirpi umane che hanno creato la storia. È veramente comico vedere come qualsiasi staterello, dal suo angolo sperduto, si metta sulla punta dei piedi e faccia la lezione all’Europa e pretenda il suo blasone nella storia universale. — Ortega y Gasset, “La ribellione delle masse” In the same way, Spirit is only what it makes of itself, and it makes itself into what already is implicitly. — G.W.F. Hegel, “The Philosophy of History” Sommo sacerdote è Sole; e tutti gli offiziali son sacerdoti, parlando delli capi, e l’offizio loro è purgar le coscienze. — T. Campanella, “La citta del Sole” !5 Introduction Today central and eastern Europe is composed of nation states that were born out the ashes of empires. As these empires collapsed, vacuums of power appeared in the various spheres of social and political existence, spurring change as well as instability. Crumbling multiethnic states brought down with them sophisticated but suddenly powerless aristocracies, and new local elites took control of whole provinces, forming or recreating autonomous states. Following the example set by western European powers, these new elites founded nation states, using the dominant public discourse of self- determination to justify their claim to independence. Inspired by the wealth and modernity of the West, many new countries tried to adopt similar regimes to those of France and Britain, but by the mid 1930’s, thus more or less ten years after Versailles and the Peace Treaties, only one state in central Europe remained allegedly democratic: Czechoslovakia. It was surrounded by authoritarian states: Hitler rose to power in Germany in 1933, Jugoslavia had been ruled by an authoritarian king since 1929, Piłsudski initiated his Sanation regime in Poland in 1926, Dollfuss formed a fascist regime in Austria in 1932, while Horthy's Regency in Hungary was de facto a dictatorship ever since its creation. The seemingly homogeneous politics of its neighbours begs the question, why, and how, did Czechoslovakia maintain a liberal democratic regime between the wars? Were the Czechoslovaks inherently democratic rather than authoritarian, western instead of eastern, and freedom loving and peaceful, as was claimed by the founders of the state and their West European and American supporters?1 Furthermore, was the Czechoslovak regime truly liberal democratic, or was its constitutional parliamentary system just a façade used to conceal its true authoritarian nature? Are the observations one can make regarding the 1918-1938 regime also valid for the short lived 1945-1948 republic, which claimed to be continuing in the footsteps of the First Republic, while openly departing from interwar liberalism? And finally, while the often romanticised idea of a democratic interwar Czechoslovakia was instrumental during later critical junctures in the country’s history, such as the 1968 Prague Spring, and the post-1989 state formation, can the First Czechoslovak Republic teach us something universal about the birth and sustenance of democratic regimes? In this study, I will argue that interwar Czechoslovakia was indeed a liberal democracy by showing that the state guaranteed significant individual rights, and that its political system was based 1 R.W. Seton-Watson, “The German Minority in Czechoslovakia,” Foreign Affairs, July 1, 1938. ; Robert J. Kerner, “Two Architects of New Europe: Masaryk and Benes,” Journal of International Relations 12, no.1 (1921): 29. !6 on a separation of powers between constitutional and extra-constitutional institutions, which to varying degrees were subject to electoral accountability. I am also going to prove that the inter-institutional system of checks and balances had come into existence unintentionally after WWI, and that after WWII a similar process would not be allowed to take place. I will also describe how the maintenance of this internal balance of power during the interwar years depended significantly on the dominance on foreign policy of the institution known as the Castle, to the detriment of the parties and the government. Indeed, while during the interwar period the Castle controlled international relations, after WWII the powerful Communist Party had a direct link with the main provider of the country, the USSR. Due to the absence of a functioning separation of powers, to a weakened rule of law, and the encroachments of the Moscow supported Czechoslovak Communist Party, post-WWII Czechoslovakia did not return to a liberal democratic regime - even though there was a clear tendency in that direction, and a liberal democratic constitution was being drafted before the February 1948 communist takeover. In order to illustrate my points, I will examine the relationship between the most important political institutions of the pre-1948 Czechoslovak state. I will focus mostly on the Czechoslovak republics that were considered democratic: the First Republic (1918-1938) and the Third Republic (1945-1948). At the same time, in order to allow for a more detailed comparison between Czechoslovak institutions, my analysis will focus on some elements of institutional continuity inherited from Austria-Hungary, on the authoritarian Second Republic (1938-1939) as well as on the crucial activity of the Czechoslovak government abroad during the critical junctures of WWI and WWII. Furthermore, since in the case of Czechoslovakia foreign policy and domestic policy are inextricably intertwined, special attention will be given to Czechoslovak international relations and to the activity of the “tenured” foreign minister Edvard Beneš. Since the analysis revolves around the concept of democracy, we also need to establish a definition of democracy that will be used to determine whether the Czechoslovak republic was actually democratic or not. As Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn argues, on similar lines to those traced by Alexis de Tocqueville, when speaking of democracy we must discern between its “Continental version” (1793 revolution), and its “Anglo-Saxon version” (Glorious and American revolutions).2 Leddihn claims that the Continental idea of democracy emerged from the illiberal democratic period of revolutionary France, that it is based on egalitarianism, and that it uses majority rule without rule of law or 2 Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn, “The Bohemian Background of German National Socialism: The D.A.P., D.N.S.A.P. and N.S.D.A.P.,” Journal of the History of Ideas 19, no.3 (June 1948): 341. !7 separations of power. Indeed, according to Leddihn, the origins of National-Socialism can be found in Continental democracy, of which the Hitlerite experience is just its logical conclusion: by concentrating the will of the majority into one person who embodies the wholeness of the nation, Nazi Germany was, according to Leddihn, the outcome of a long cultural process beginning with the reformations which, through the French Revolution, paved the path for XX century totalitarianism.3 The Anglo-Saxon idea of democracy, on the other hand, is intrinsically liberal, Leddihn claims, because it goes back to the Constitutionalist tradition, and is based on the division of powers theorised by Monstesquieu.4 According to Ortega y Gasset, liberal regimes exists when states limit their own power, and allow individuals to live without having to conform to a dominant idea, practice, or mass culture (be it political or not).5 Moreover, in order to avoid arbitrary use of law, as well as the abuse of law by politically dominant forces, the presence of stable and respected laws and constitutions is crucial to ensure the existence of a liberal state. In a liberal society, laws, rather than the wills of men, have the ultimate say in the activity of the state, in the functioning of the judicial system, and on lawmaking. Thus, following Ortega y Gasset’s description, we will have to ascertain whether or not Czechoslovakia had rule of law in place, by seeing if it guaranteed sufficient freedom to minorities of opinion, as well as ethnic or religious minorities.
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