Návrat a nástup: Český systémový koncept krajně pravicového řádu za druhé republiky
Comeback and Rise: Czech System-Concept of Radical Right Regime in the Period of the "Second Republic"

Summary/Abstract: The study deals with the issue of the so-called "Second Republic" of Czechoslovakia (1938-1939), which was the only radical right regime in the modern Czech history. lt was established by Czech conservative authoritarian right and also fascists gained access to power. The interpretation of the Second Republic is becoming an activated political issue again in these days, because most of the current radical right movements use the idealised picture of the undemocratic regime of the Second Republic as an inspiration for the present and they tend to reinterpret the issue in a targeted way. ln the introduction the author characterises the current historical and political discussion about the Second Republic, mentioning also the causes of the prevailing taboos and interpretation gaps. Czech responsibility for the undemocratic regime is being denied; the conversion from radical conservatism to fascism is being downplayed or denied. The research of the Second Republic ignores the continuity with preceding development of Czech integral nationalist, fundamental catholic, anti-modernistic traditional authoritarian right and fascism. lt is not set into the comparative context of other European authoritarian or totalitarian regimes. The author interprets this period as a climax of a long-term anti-liberal confrontational power politics of the first republic and also as a result of the increasingly oligarchic nature of its parliamentary democracy; as a result of a specific Czech radical right political vision with creative social goals, not a temporary emergency project resulting from the defeat of the state in Munich and the external pressure of the Nazi Germany. Conservative comeback from broad democratisation initiated by President Masaryk in 1918 to authoritarian pre-modern state and values was combined with the rise of the fascist revolt. Jan Rataj follows the development of the political and party system, using the analysis of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes as a basis. He focuses on program declarations and hierarchy of values, but also on the organisational principles of the authoritarian regime. He focuses in more detail also on the process of dismantlement of the democratic structures and the shift of the society towards closed integration-nationalist and racial definition of the nation. The author concludes that despite some specific patterns caused by the unsettled nature of the Czech radical right regime, the Second Republic managed to shift within the short period of its existence from democratic system to authoritarian regime, relying on its own sources and on its own people. lt became part of the broad family of authoritarian and totalitarian states of Europe of that time. Czechoslovakia did not remain a Central European exemption. The article is based on the analysis of printed and archive materials, some of which have not yet been published, and on issue-specific literature.

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