The next presentation of the Visegrad Scholarship at OSA lecture series is
First Czechoslovak Republic and foreign political systems in the discourse about the Czechoslovak and Czech constitution
by Klara Markova, PhD student, Charles University, Prague
Historical traditions of pre-authoritarian democratic systems and foreign models are often mentioned in the literature as the main inspiration for designing new constitutional and political systems. In the case of the Czech Republic, resp. the Czech Constitution of 1992, the democratic historical tradition of the First Czechoslovak Republic seems to be prevalent. This project aims to understand what images of the First Republic and foreign models were created in the debates on the constitution, how often and in what context the First Republic and foreign models appeared in the discussions and argumentations, and finally what role such images played in the discourse. This presentation will especially focus on how materials of the Vera and Donald Blinken Open
Society Archives (OSA) contributed to this research project.