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After
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
,
Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...
established itself and as a
republic A republic () is a " state in which power rests with the people or their representatives; specifically a state without a monarchy" and also a "government, or system of government, of such a state." Previously, especially in the 17th and 18th ...
and
democracy Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose g ...
with the establishment of the Constitution of 1920. The constitution was adopted by the National Assembly on 29 February 1920 and replaced the provisional constitution adopted on 13 November 1918. The
constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...
, modelled after constitutions of established
democracies Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose go ...
, was conceived in the light of Hans Kelsen's contribution to constitutional law. The system of government the constitution introduced made Czechoslovakia the most westernized of all of the
central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known a ...
and
eastern Europe Eastern Europe is a subregion of the European continent. As a largely ambiguous term, it has a wide range of geopolitical, geographical, ethnic, cultural, and socio-economic connotations. The vast majority of the region is covered by Russia, whi ...
an nations on the verge of
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. The constitution created a parliament but also a
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
and
cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filin ...
, sharing powers of
executive branch The Executive, also referred as the Executive branch or Executive power, is the term commonly used to describe that part of government which enforces the law, and has overall responsibility for the governance of a state. In political systems ...
. Beneath them was a
judiciary The judiciary (also known as the judicial system, judicature, judicial branch, judiciative branch, and court or judiciary system) is the system of courts that adjudicates legal disputes/disagreements and interprets, defends, and applies the law ...
that was advanced with many levels of courts delegated for various types of cases.


Parliamentary democracy

The parliament, the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...
, was
bicameral Bicameralism is a type of legislature, one divided into two separate assemblies, chambers, or houses, known as a bicameral legislature. Bicameralism is distinguished from unicameralism, in which all members deliberate and vote as a single gr ...
. The Chamber of Deputies consisted of 300 members elected for 6 years. The Senate consisted of 150 members elected for 8 years. Suffrage was exercised by all citizens, of both sexes, over the age of 21 for elections to the lower chamber; and over the age of 26 for elections to the senate. Candidates for the lower chamber had to be at least 30 years of age; and for the senate, at least 45 years of age. The
parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of th ...
that was installed created a complicated system of
proportional representation Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
, with relatively few constituents for each representative. It was possible to get a seat with as little as 2.6 percent of the vote. This allowed for a great variety of
political parties A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology ...
to emerge, with no clear front runner or leading political entity. A typical Chamber of Deputies during the First Republic had well over 10 factions represented. With so many parties as part of the national forum, it was all but impossible for one party to win the 151 seats needed for a majority. No party came close to being able to govern alone until the
Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of '' The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel ...
was able to secure 38% percent of the votes in
1946 Events January * January 6 - The first general election ever in Vietnam is held. * January 7 – The Allies recognize the Austrian republic with its 1937 borders, and divide the country into four occupation zones. * January 10 ** The ...
; before then, no party won more than 25 percent of the vote. Since it was so hard to secure a majority, the government was at times stalled out and unable to effectively legislate. Under the circumstances, Czechoslovak prime ministers were fairly weak figures compared to their counterparts in the rest of Europe. In most cases, the prime minister was more the chairman of the cabinet than its leader. If parliament rejected a government bill, the cabinet could unanimously refer the proposed law to
referendum A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a Representative democr ...
. No recourse was made to this constitutional provision during the First Republic.


Presidency

The president was elected by both chambers of parliament in joint session (acting in accordance with the standing orders of the lower chamber). The presidential term was seven years, with no more than two in a row (the first president was exempted from this provision). Candidates for the presidency had to be at least 35 years old. The framers intended for the prime minister and cabinet to hold the real power. Hence, the constitutional powers of the president were limited. However, the personal prestige of the first two presidents,
Tomáš Masaryk Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk (7 March 185014 September 1937) was a Czechoslovak politician, statesman, sociologist, and philosopher. Until 1914, he advocated restructuring the Austro-Hungarian Empire into a federal state. With the help of ...
and
Edvard Beneš Edvard Beneš (; 28 May 1884 – 3 September 1948) was a Czech politician and statesman who served as the president of Czechoslovakia from 1935 to 1938, and again from 1945 to 1948. He also led the Czechoslovak government-in-exile 1939 to 194 ...
, and the instability of successive governments (for example, Masaryk's presidency saw 10 cabinets headed by nine statesmen) meant that the president wielded in practice more authority than the plain text of the constitution suggested. The constitution laid down that all executive functions rested with the government except as expressly assigned to the president. However, the president could address written or verbal messages to parliament, appoint and dismiss ministers, attend and preside over cabinet meetings, and demand written reports from individual ministers. Hence, presidential influence on the executive was in practice considerable. The president concluded and ratified international treaties, saving that treaties imposing personal or military burdens upon the subject or involving territorial changes required parliamentary consent. The president could veto bills by sending them back to parliament, with accompanying observations. Parliament in turn had the right to override the veto with a simple majority of both houses. If the Senate sustained the veto, then the Chamber of Deputies could override it unilaterally by a subsequent vote by means of a three-fifths majority. The president was army's commander-in-chief, with the power to appoint all high-ranking officers. He also had the right to appoint university professors, judges and senior civil servants. Whenever the presidency was vacant, most of its functions were assumed by the prime minister.


Regional autonomy

In order to satisfy the protection of national minorities required by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the constitution referred explicitly to the terms of the treaty.


Carpathian Ruthenia

Carpathian Ruthenia Carpathian Ruthenia ( rue, Карпатьска Русь, Karpat'ska Rus'; uk, Закарпаття, Zakarpattia; sk, Podkarpatská Rus; hu, Kárpátalja; ro, Transcarpatia; pl, Zakarpacie); cz, Podkarpatská Rus; german: Karpatenukrai ...
had been formally included within the Czecho-Slovak state from 1919. The 1920 constitution provided for the autonomy of the territory. However, these provisions remained a dead letter in practice, as the supposedly autonomous institutions were controlled from Prague.


Language law

A constitutional act was adopted alongside the constitution on the same day, and was considered one of the constitutional texts. It established the "
Czechoslovak language The Czechoslovak language ( cs, jazyk československý, sk, Československý jazyk) was a political sociolinguistic concept used in Czechoslovakia in 1920–1938 for the definition of the state language of the country which proclaimed its in ...
" (i.e. Czech and Slovak considered as two official dialects of one language) as an
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
, but also granted status to minority languages in areas where at least 20% of the citizens spoke such a language.


Development of the constitution

The Constitution of 1920 would serve as the guiding document for the government of Czechoslovakia until
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
. And even after Czechoslovakia came under the control of the
Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
, the constitution would still continue to govern the way the state’s internal affairs by serving as the underlying example for the country’s next constitution, with provisions being made for a separate and more localized Slovak government. These local governments from that point forward would control Slovakia, with the government established by the constitution ruling over the more basic common matters as well as the Czech half of the nation. The 1920 constitution was replaced on 9 May 1948 by the
Ninth-of-May Constitution The Ninth-of-May (1948) Constitution was the second constitution of Czechoslovakia, in force from 1948 to 1960. It came into force on 9 May, shortly after the communist seizure of power in the country on 25 February 1948. It replaced the 1920 C ...
, following the Communist takeover in February 1948.


References


Bibliography

*''A History of the Czechs and Slovaks'', RW Seton-Watson, London, 1943 * Taborsky, Ed. 1944. Czechoslovakia’s Experience with P.R. Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, vol. 26: 49-51. http://jstor.org/ (accessed September 9, 2007). * Skilling, H. Gordon. 1952. The Czechoslovak Constitutional System: The Soviet Impact.
Political Science Quarterly ''Political Science Quarterly'' is an American double blind peer-reviewed academic journal covering government, politics, and policy, published since 1886 by the Academy of Political Science. Its editor-in-chief is Robert Y. Shapiro (Columbia U ...
, vol. 67: 198-224. http://jstor.org/ (accessed September 9, 2007). * Taborsky Ed. 1955. The Administration of Justice in a People’s Democracy. The
American Political Science Review The ''American Political Science Review'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal covering all areas of political science. It is an official journal of the American Political Science Association and is published on their behalf by Cambri ...
, vol. 49: 402-415. http://jstor.org/ (accessed September 9, 2007). * Grzybowski, Kazimierz. 1957. Continuity of Law in Eastern Europe. The American Journal of Comparative Law, vol. 6: 47-78. http://jstor.org/ (accessed September 9, 2007).


External links


The constitution of the Czechoslovak Republic (1920)
''Internet Archive'',
Cornell University Library The Cornell University Library is the library system of Cornell University. As of 2014, it holds over 8 million printed volumes and over a million ebooks. More than 90 percent of its current 120,000 periodical titles are available online. It ...
{{Authority control Government of Czechoslovakia 1920 in law
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these pr ...
1920 Events January * January 1 ** Polish–Soviet War in 1920: The Russian Red Army increases its troops along the Polish border from 4 divisions to 20. ** Kauniainen, completely surrounded by the city of Espoo, secedes from Espoo as its own ma ...
1920 documents 1920 in politics February 1920 events