The Golden Age of Czech Self-Government 1848–1918
Author:
Milan Hlavačka
Year of publication:
2025
Publisher:
Duncker & Humblot
ISBN:
978-3-428-19477-3 (Print), 978-3-428-59477-1 (E-Book)
The book describes the emergence and activities of Czech self-government during the "golden age" from 1848 to 1918 at three levels: municipal, district, and land/country. It also addresses the relationship to Bohemian state law, national education, bureaucratic language usage, homeland law, rural transport infrastructure, healthcare, and the embezzlement and disappearance of municipal property. Self-government was a highly developed civil-administrative instrument in Bohemia and was considered a school of liberal and later democratic attitudes, playing a key role in the development of Czech society into a modern and literate nation.
The studies presented in this book are based on territorial and factual examples for the municipality, district, and province, as well as on personnel components that illustrate the interplay between the three autonomous levels, as well as with the level of state administration. In this way, the achievements and weaknesses of Bohemian self-government are clearly presented.
