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The Czech and Slovak National Socialists began to build a provincial party organisation in Slovakia shortly after the establishment of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1919. Party structures were created mainly in eastern and western Slovakia in localities where a larger community of Czechs lived and partici- pated in the building of modern Slovakia. While on a local and regional scale the work was quite successful, despite the negative impact of relatively frequent reorganisation, and the county-based branches of the organisational structure proved their viability in particular. The Bratislava provincial party headquar- ters were slow and difficult to form due to Prague-centric tendencies in party management, intra-party disputes, and cadre deficits. The functionality of the provincial organisation was severely limited by the poor morale of the socially weak membership base, and the excessive dependence on party leadership in Prague, which was unable to fully meet the needs of the party in Slovakia. The success of the organisational efforts can be characterised as the establishment of a relatively branched system of affiliated (satellite) organisations, which, although not large in number, had a positive effect on the expansion of the party's electorate and its membership base. The organisational construction of the provincial organisation of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party in Slovakia was limited primarily by its Czechoslovak, socialist, and progressive programmatic orientation, which did not correspond with the thinking of the majority of Slovak society. As a result, its membership remained relatively small throughout the lifespan of the Slovak provincial organisation of the party and its political position and importance in the Slovak party-political system remained more or less marginal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Czech historiography shows certain deficits in the sphere of interest in the topic of the political organization of the social class of traders, craftsmen and merchants at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. At the same time, the middle class is important for the stability of society. The processes of political differentiation taking place in the Czech lands since the 1890s affected this social class with an almost tenyear time lag. They were strongly affected by the consequences of the electoral reform of 1907, which meant a transition from a curial electoral system to elections based on universal suffrage. Almost all relevant political parties responded to the reform by setting up affiliated organizations for traders. Part of the trade movement rejected the behaviour of political parties and, as an alternative to it, followed the principle of an estates organization for a long time. It sought to establish a political party, the membership base of which would consist exclusively of members of the trade estate. The consequence of these processes was the organizational and political fragmentation of traders and the emergence of political competition perceived as a weakening in the promotion of small-scale production interests. We consider the establishment of the Progressive and Independent Czech Traders' Party (Strana pokrokového a neodvislého živnostnictva českého) to be the first attempt to form an estates political party of traders. It appeared in the political system of Bohemia for a short time from 1903 to 1907. It was an honorary-type political party (or a pre-party formation), whose membership base mainly came from the territory of southern Bohemia, although its ambitions extended to expanding its scope to the entire territory of the country. It presented the economic programme of Czech traders and wanted to take a leading position within the trade movement. It declared the main goal of its activity to be the representation of traders at the Bohemian Diet and the Imperial Council through deputies professionally associated with the small-scale producers' class, while their political profile was not yet a decisive criterion for their selection. The organizers of other estates political parties of traders, established after 1907 and operated in the period before the First World War, drew on the experience of the party. The failure of the Progressive and Independent Czech Traders' Party strengthened the process of seeking political identity in parties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the development of Czech Catholic political parties in Bohemia and Moravia during the period from 1890 to 1914. Origin of the Catholic political movement; Support given by the clergy and Catholic aristocracy; Background of the Christian Social Party.

Liberty represented a crucial topic for Austrian social democrats of 19th and 20th century, the request for „workers liberation" took the leading position in party political programs and election declarations. But the social-democratic understanding of liberty was highly inspired by Marxism, and it was therefore in some ways different from the understanding of this phenomenon within classical liberalism. Liberty in this case meant not just the acquisition of political rights but primarily escape from economic dependence. Investigation and analysis of social-democratic concepts of freedom and liberty is the main goal of my paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on educational goals that were emphasised in the political programs of five the largest political parties of the First Czechoslovak Republic. The article is based on official documents of political parties such as programs approved by party congresses and election programs or statements of prominent party representatives. The character of all those documents was influenced by the goal to form statements and inform party members or persuade possible voters. It means those documents are subjective and their content was not necessarily a political commitment. Therefore it cannot be assumed that all the postulates in the programs had a real influence on the education. On the contrary the documents depict the development of the considerations about education as a part of cultural policy. Political parties of the First Czechoslovak Republic were considering education in very similar way and in continuity with development before 1918. They were concerning about same issues especially in the social context but with different emphasises. This contribution aims to describe the party-specific concepts of education in relation to the ideological peculiarities of the individual parties and their cultural and political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims to reflect on the multiple dimensions of the Czech party system, examine it for breaking points and, at the intersection of these points, periodize the developments in the years 1989-2014. Attention is paid to four different party system variables - party format, party type, extent of bipolarity, and formation of coalitions and coalition relations [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being a traditional party for the nobility, up to 1910 the Liberal National Party (Národní strana svobodomyslná) did not have a daily newspaper of its own. However, for many years the party had cultivated close ties to the Young Czech Národní listy, which it was able to use not only for agitation, but also as an organizational center. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the competition represented by mass and class parties grew stronger. The Liberal National Party had to adapt. The resulting reform professionalized not only procedures and party work as such, but also the media organization. As a result, a differentiated press scene evolved around the party, taking into account different interests of the people concerned. Local and regional media in particular enjoyed a dynamic development. In the end, the Liberal National Party succeeded in purchasing the Národní listy daily. After all, the party possessed its own newspaper which it directly controlled and which continually supported its work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The press contributed in a considerable measure to the national and political mobilization of Czech Society between the revolution of 1848 and World War One. Using Moravia as an example, the article examines the role of the press in the transformation from parties representing notables into parties representing the masses, and also how the press, in turn, was affected in this process. Soon there were more Czech periodicals in Moravia than German ones. The spectrum of periodicals grew broader, and the Czech press, attracting an ever-larger part of the population, grew into a network penetrating not only the strictly political aspects of life but the whole range of them. The importance of party periodicals, however, remained especially high. Daily newspapers affiliated with or owned by political parties not only championed goals of their respective parties, but they also played an important role in organizing party activities. An appendix contains a table which lists the most important newspapers and journals in Moravia by political orientation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]