Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe that includes the historic regions of Bohemia and Moravia, and part of Silesia. The republic borders Poland to the north, Germany to the northwest and west, Austria to the south, and Slovakia to the east. The capital and the largest city is Prague.

The country's dominant ethnic group are Czechs, who represent about 94 percent of the population. Slovaks account for approximately 3 percent; and Poles, Germans, Roma (gypsies), and Hungarians make up most of the remainder. The total population was estimated at 10.2 million people as of 2003. About 75 percent of the people live in urban areas. In 2002 the World Bank estimated the per capita income at U.S.$5,480. The official language of the Czech Republic is Czech, a language of the West Slavic subgroup of Slavic languages.

The Czech Republic's total land area is 78,864 square kilometers (30,450 square miles). The maximum distance from east to west is 490 kilometers (305 miles), and the maximum distance from south to north is 280 kilometers (175 miles). The Czech Republic contains two major regions: Bohemia, located in the west, and Moravia, located in the east. Part of the region of Silesia occupies the north-central section of the country. The climate is temperate, with cool summers and cold, cloudy, and humid winters.

brief history

The region that became the Czech Republic was inhabited by Celtic and Germanic tribes prior to the arrival of Slavic tribes in Eastern Europe in the fifth century. In the tenth century, the Premyslids—a dynasty of the legendary Cehove, or Cesi, tribe from which the Czech derived their name—unified neighboring Czech tribes and established a form of centralized rule in Bohemia. In 1212 the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1194–1250) made Bohemia a largely independent kingdom within the empire. In the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, an important reform movement led by Jan Hus (c. 1373–1415) attacked the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. When Hus was tried for heresy and burned at the stake in 1415, his death triggered a series of religious wars in Bohemia. In 1458 Jiri of Podebrady 1420–1471), a Protestant, was elected king of Bohemia, thus becoming the first Protestant monarch in all of Europe.

The sixteenth century brought Czech lands under Habsburg dominance; Ferdinand I (1793–1875) was the first Austrian king of Bohemia. The conflict between Czech Protestant nobility and the Habsburg monarchy degenerated into the Thirty Years' War. In 1620 the Bohemian army was defeated, and the Czechs were forced to convert to Catholicism and give up their own language and culture in favor of their German counterparts.

The next three centuries were marked by significant industrial development and peasant migration to urban areas. During this period Czech writers, journalists, and intellectuals began to stir greater national consciousness among Czechs, but Habsburg rule continued until the empire of Austria-Hungary collapsed after World War I (1914–1918), when the independent state of Czechoslovakia was created.

The constitution of the independent Czechoslovakia established a democratic republic committed to the protection of civil rights for all citizens. The first president, Thomas Masaryk (1850–1937), served until 1935 and was succeeded by Edvard Benes (1884–1948). During the 1920s and early 1930s Czechoslovakia was remarkably stable, enjoying a period of considerable economic prosperity. The main domestic problem was growing disaffection among the country's large national minorities: the Slovaks and Sudeten Germans.

history and leadership after world war ii

In 1938 German dictator Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) forced the government of Czechoslovakia to surrender the Sudetenland to Germany. A year later Germany occupied the entire country. When Czechoslovakia was liberated in May 1945 by troops from the Soviet Union, its government fell under communist influence, which lasted until the breakup of the Soviet Union in the 1990s. The government of Klement Gottwald (1896–1953) was established after the Communist Party won a plurality (38%) of the vote in the first postwar election in 1946. It attempted to mimic the Soviet model of political organization and economic development. It engaged in harsh repression, imprisoning and even executing many political leaders who were considered to be disloyal. Gottwald died in 1953 and was replaced by Antonin Zapotocky (1884–1957), who permitted moderate liberalization of these conditions. However, when Antonin Novotny (1904–1975) assumed the presidency in 1957, strict governmental control was imposed once again.

By the late 1960s, the poor performance of the Czech economy had led to a program of reforms (known as the "Prague Spring" of 1968) implemented by the Slovak leader, Alexander Dubcek (1921–1992). Fearing that the reforms would weaken communist control of Czechoslovakia—and possibly other communist countries—the Soviet Union on August 20, 1968, invaded Czechoslovakia and halted the process of liberalization. Dubcek was replaced by Gustav Husak (1913–1991) as the head of the Communist Party, which came to dominate political life once more. However, the country's poor economic situation during the 1970s and the reforms that took place in the Soviet Union under Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931) during the late 1980s revitalized the dissident movement. As a result, in December 1989 the parliament elected Vaclav Havel (b. 1936), a dissident and noncommunist, to be the country's new president.

The transition from communism occurred so smoothly and nonviolently that it came to be known as the "Velvet Revolution." The first democratic elections since 1946 occurred in June 1990, with the majority of seats in parliament won by Havel's Civic Forum. The new government reintroduced a market economy and accelerated the process of privatization. These policies generated disputes and tensions between Czech and Slovak leaders. Because of economic differences between their two regions, Czechs and Slovaks held conflicting views about the appropriate pace and nature of economic reforms. Throughout the fall of 1992 Czech and Slovak leaders negotiated the details of disbanding the federation. In January 1993 the Czechoslovak federation was replaced by two new independent states: the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

In 1996 the separate Czech Republic held its first parliamentary elections. Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus's (b. 1941) center-right coalition lost its majority in the lower house of parliament, and representation by the center-left Czech Social Democratic Party greatly increased. In November 1997 Klaus and his cabinet were forced to resign amid a campaign finance scandal. Milos Zeman (b. 1944), chairman of the Social Democrats, was appointed prime minister and subsequently formed a minority government. Klaus was elected president of the country in the February 2003 elections. He succeeded Havel, who was barred by the constitution from seeking a third term.

Since its creation in 1993, the Czech Republic has experienced remarkable political stability and economic progress. The country was admitted as a full member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1997 and also became a member of the European Union (EU).

nature of government

The constitution adopted in 1992 established the new Czech Republic as a parliamentary democracy. The Czech Republic has both a president and prime minister. The president acts as the head of the state and is elected for a five-year term. He or she may serve no more than two consecutive terms. The president names the prime minister and under his or her advice also appoints the seventeen members of the cabinet. The prime minister acts as the head of the government and is usually the leader of the party with the majority of seats in parliament.

The constitution guarantees the division of the legislative, executive, and judiciary branches. The Czech parliament consists of two chambers: the

Chamber of Deputies (lower house) and Senate (upper house). The Chamber of Deputies consists of 200 members, elected to six-year terms. One-third of the Senate seats come up for election every two years. All citizens over the age of eighteen are eligible to vote.

The federal government of the Czech Republic is responsible for carrying out all executive decisions and actions; it applies the laws and regulations adopted by parliament.

The Supreme Court is the highest court of appeal in the Czech Republic. The president of the country appoints Supreme Court judges for unlimited terms. There are also a Constitutional Court, a Supreme Administrative Court, and various regional and district courts. The president appoints fifteen justices to the Constitutional Court to serve ten-year terms. Constitutional Court appointments must be approved by the Senate.

citizens' participation, rights, and liberties

The Czech Republic is a member of United Nations (UN) and participates in its specialized agencies. The country's 1992 constitution guarantees human freedoms, rights, and liberties as established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

After communism's collapse in the early 1990s, more than one hundred political parties were registered in the Czech Republic. Forty parties participated in the 1992 elections and twelve won representation in the federal legislature. Another eight parties were registered in the Czech National Council, which became the Czech legislature after the breakup of Czechoslovakia.

The largest parties in the Czech Republic are the center-left Czech Social Democratic Party and the center-right Civic Democratic Party. Other parties represented in the Czech parliament include the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, the centrist Christian-Democratic Union-Czech People's Party, and the conservative Freedom Union.

The Czech Constitution forbids the death penalty and guarantees its citizens freedom from torture and illegal imprisonment. Strong evidence exists that rights and liberties are well respected: In its 2003 report Freedom House rated the Czech Republic as one of the world's free countries, giving it the best possible score of 1 for its protection of political rights and the next best score of 2 for its safeguarding of civil rights and liberties.

See also: Havel, Vaclav; Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

bibliography

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International Monetary Fund. The Czech and Slovak Federal Republic: An Economy in Transition. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund, 1990.

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Bogdan Alex Fratiloiu