Liberalism in the Czech lands - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article gives an overview of liberalism in the Czech Lands
Czech lands
Czech lands is an auxiliary term used mainly to describe the combination of Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. Today, those three historic provinces compose the Czech Republic. The Czech lands had been settled by the Celts , then later by various Germanic tribes until the beginning of 7th...

. It is limited to liberal

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

parties

Political party

A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...

with substantial support, mainly proved by having had a representation in parliament. The sign ⇒ denotes another party in that scheme. For inclusion in this scheme it is not necessary so that parties labeled themselves as a liberal party.

Background

When liberalism

Liberalism

started in Bohemia

Bohemia

Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...

and Moravia

Moravia

Moravia is a historical region in Central Europe in the east of the Czech Republic, and one of the former Czech lands, together with Bohemia and Silesia. It takes its name from the Morava River which rises in the northwest of the region...

, the Czech lands were member states of Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary

Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

. Liberals in the region started as part of the conservative nationalist National Party

National Party (Bohemia)

The National Party is a far-right nationalist political party in the Czech Republic. Petra Edelmannová is the current leader of the party. They are strongly opposed to Czech membership of the European Union...

(Národní strana) or Old Czechs, but from 1874 they formed their own party: National Liberal Party (Národní strana svobodomyslná). Czech

Czech people

Czechs, or Czech people are a western Slavic people of Central Europe, living predominantly in the Czech Republic. Small populations of Czechs also live in Slovakia, Austria, the United States, the United Kingdom, Chile, Argentina, Canada, Germany, Russia and other countries...

liberals usually do not call themselves liberals, but prefer labels such as progressive

Progressivism

Progressivism is an umbrella term for a political ideology advocating or favoring social, political, and economic reform or changes. Progressivism is often viewed by some conservatives, constitutionalists, and libertarians to be in opposition to conservative or reactionary ideologies.The...

or even national socialist (do not mix up this label with the German variant).

History

Nowadays liberalism is clearly unsuccessful in this country. Liberal parties are small or in decline and are unable to cooperate together. They were unsuccessful at the last European elections (2004). At these elections the European Democrats (Evropští demokraté) proved to be a liberal alternative, but it joined the EPP

European People's Party

The European People's Party is a pro-European centre-right European political party. The EPP was founded in 1976 by Christian democratic parties, but later it increased its membership to include conservative parties and parties of other centre-right perspectives.The EPP is the most influential of...

National Liberal Party

1874: Liberals in Bohemia seceded from the National Party
National Party (Bohemia)
The National Party is a far-right nationalist political party in the Czech Republic. Petra Edelmannová is the current leader of the party. They are strongly opposed to Czech membership of the European Union...

and formed the National Liberal Party (Národní strana svobodomyslná), also known as the Young Czechs.
1889: A faction of the National Party joined the National Liberal Party.
1897: The ⇒ Radical Progressive Party seceded from the party.
1899: The ⇒ Czech State Rights Radical Party seceded from the party.
1900: A faction seceded as the ⇒ Czech People's Party.
1918: The party merged with the ⇒ Czech State Rights Radical Party, the National Party and others into the mainly conservative Czech State Rights Democrats (Česká státoprávní demokracie), renamed in 1919 as the Czechoslovak National Democrats (Československá národní demokracie).
1924: Allies of president Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Tomáš Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak politician, sociologist and philosopher, who as an eager advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the founder and first President of Czechoslovakia, also was...

left the party to form the ⇒ National Labour Party.
1934: After the party developed into a national-conservative party, it joined the National Reunion (Národní sjedonocení).

Czech People's Party / Czech Progressive Party

1887: A second faction of liberals seceded from the National Party and joined the ⇒ National Liberal Party in 1889.
1900: This faction formed the Czech People's Party
Czech People's Party (1900)
The Czech People's Party was founded in 1900 by Tomáš Masaryk and members of the Young Czech Party.It continued to exist until 1906, when the Czech Progressive Party was created with some members of the Radical Progressive Party....

(Česká strana lidová)
1906: The party absorbed the ⇒ Radical Progressive Party and was renamed Czech Progressive Party (Česka strana pokroková)
1918: The party disappeared, members joined the ⇒ Czech State Rights Democrats and the ⇒ Czech Socialist Party

Radical Progressive Party

1897: The Radical Progressive Party (Strana radikálně pokroková) seceded from the ⇒ National Liberal Party
1906: The party merged into the ⇒ Czech Progressive Party

From National Social Party until Liberal National Social Party

1898: Socialists and left-wing liberals formed the National Social Party (Národní strana sociální).
1918: The party was reorganized into the Czech Socialist Party (Česká socialistická strana), from 1919 the Czechoslovak Socialist Party (Československá socialistická strana).
1926: The party absorbed the liberal ⇒ National Labour Party and was renamed the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party (Československá národně socialistická strana)
1948: The party continued as a communist satellite party under the name Czechoslavak Socialist Party (Československá strana socialistická). It regained a democratic profile in 1990, after the fall of the Communist regime.
1993: The party was renamed the Liberal National Social Party (Liberální strana národně sociální), but didn't play a role anymore.
1995: The party merged with the ⇒ Free Democrats into the ⇒ Free Democrats-Liberal National Social Party. Shortly before the merger a conservative faction seceded as the Civic National Movement (Občanské národní hnutí)
1997: After failure in 1996 elections, the Free Democrats (= liberals) left the party and it was renamed again into Czech National Social Party.

Radical State Rights Party / Progressive State Rights Party

1899: The Radical State Rights Party (Strana radikálně státoprávní) seceded from the ⇒ National Liberal Party
1908: The party merged with a faction of the former ⇒ Radical Progressive Party into the Progressive State Rights Party (Strana státoprávně pokroková).
1918: The party merged with the ⇒ National Liberal Party and others into the ⇒ Czech State Rights Democrats.

National Labour Party

1924: A liberal faction of the ⇒ Czechoslovak National Democrats left the party to form the National Labour Party (Národní strana práce).
1926: The party merged into the ⇒ Czechoslovak National Socialist Party

German Democratic Freedom Party

1919: German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

liberals in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...

formed the German Democratic Freedom Party (Deutschdemokratische Freiheitspartei)
1938: The party disappeared with the German takeover of Czechoslovakia.

From Civic Movement until Party for the Open Society

1991: Liberals inside the general democratic Civic Forum
Civic Forum
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989...

(Občanské fórum) formed the Civic Movement (Občanské hnutí). The movement largely failed in elections.
1993: The party was renamed into the Free Democrats (Svobodní demokraté)
1995: After another failure in elections the party merged with the ⇒ Liberal National Social Party into the Free Democrats-Liberal National Social Party (Svobodní Demokraté - Liberální strana národně sociální).
1997: After failure in 1996 elections, the Free Democrats left the party and in 1998 formed the Party for the Open Society
Party for the Open Society
The Party for the Open Society is a tiny social liberal political party in the Czech Republic....

(Strana pro otevřenou společnost).

Civic Democratic Alliance

1991: At the fracturing of the general democratic Civic Forum
Civic Forum
The Civic Forum was a political movement in the Czech part of Czechoslovakia, established during the Velvet Revolution in 1989...

(Občanské fórum) the conservative and liberal faction Civic Democratic Alliance
Civic Democratic Alliance
The Civic Democratic Alliance was a small liberal centre-right political party in the Czech Republic, functional between years 1989 and 2007.-History:...

(Občanská demokratická alliance) established itself as a separate party.
After being quite influential during early 1990s (over 5% of voters, participated in government) the party gradually declined. It no longer plays any role in Czech politics.
Some regional factions formed new liberal parties in the second half of 1990s:
- Liberal Reform Party
  Liberal Reform Party (Czech Republic)
  The Liberal Reform Party , abbreviated to LiRA, is a small free market classical liberal political party in the Czech Republic. It had one member of the Senate, Jiří Zlatuška, who was elected to his six-year term in 2002.-External links:...
  
  (Liberální reformní strana) in South Moravian Region
  South Moravian Region
  South Moravian Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the south-western part of its historical region of Moravia, with exception of Jobova Lhota, that belongs to Bohemia. Its capital is Brno the 2nd largest city of the Czech Republic. The region is famous for its wine...
  
  (in Brno
  Brno
  Brno by population and area is the second largest city in the Czech Republic, the largest Moravian city, and the historical capital city of the Margraviate of Moravia. Brno is the administrative centre of the South Moravian Region where it forms a separate district Brno-City District...
  
  ),
- Vote for the City
  Vote for the City
  Vote for the City is a tiny liberal party in the Czech Republic.-See also:*Liberalism*Contributions to liberal theory*Liberalism worldwide*List of liberal parties*Liberal democracy*Liberalism in the Czech lands...
  
  (Volba pro město) in Hradec Králové Region
  Hradec Králové Region
  Hradec Králové Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the north-eastern part of its historical region of Bohemia. It is named after its capital Hradec Králové....
  
  ,
- Some members in Liberec Region
  Liberec Region
  Liberec Region is an administrative unit of the Czech Republic, located in the northernmost part of its historical region of Bohemia. Region borders with Saxony, and Poland...
  
  left party and entered the ⇒ Party for Open Society.

Freedom Union

1998: A breakaway group of the Civic Democratic Party established the liberal Freedom Union (Unie Svobody).
2001: The party merged with the Democratic Union (Demokratická unie) into the Freedom Union-Democratic Union (Unie Svobody - Demokratická unie, US-DEU)
The influence and membership of the party declined and in the 2006 parliamentary elections
Czech legislative election, 2006
Parliamentary elections were held in the Czech Republic on 2 and 3 June 2006.The pre-election campaign was fierce and mostly negative. A major scandal broke out few days before the election. The two largest parties had profited from the divisive campaign – both had obtained the highest percentage...

it obtained only 0.3% of the vote.

Liberal leaders

National Liberal Party: Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Tomáš Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak politician, sociologist and philosopher, who as an eager advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the founder and first President of Czechoslovakia, also was...

(1850 - 1937), but he strictly rejected the label liberal.
National Social Party: Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš
Edvard Beneš was a leader of the Czechoslovak independence movement, Minister of Foreign Affairs and the second President of Czechoslovakia. He was known to be a skilled diplomat.- Youth :...
Free Democrats: Jiří Dienstbier
Jiří Dienstbier
Jiří Dienstbier was a Czech politician and journalist. He was one of Czechoslovakia's most respected foreign correspondent before being fired after the Prague Spring. Unable to have a livelihood as a journalist, he worked as a janitor for the next two decades...

(party is defunct)
Freedom Union: Jan Ruml, Hana Marvanová (no longer a member)
Liberal Reform Party: Milan Hamersky (leader of an extremely tiny party)

Liberal thinkers

In the Contributions to liberal theory

Contributions to liberal theory

Individual contributors to classical liberalism and political liberalism are associated with philosophers of the Enlightenment. Liberalism as a specifically named ideology begins in the late 18th century as a movement towards self-government and away from aristocracy...

the following Czech thinkers are included:

Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk
Tomáš Masaryk
Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk , sometimes called Thomas Masaryk in English, was an Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak politician, sociologist and philosopher, who as an eager advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the founder and first President of Czechoslovakia, also was...

(1850 - 1937), but he strictly rejected being counted as a liberal.
Josef Kaizl
Josef Kaizl
Josef Kaizl was a Czech professor and politician in the Austria-Hungary Empire. He was a member of the Imperial Council, and finance minister between 1898 and 1899....

(1854 - 1901)