Politické vzdělávání v meziválečném Československu a Svobodná škola politických nauk

The submitted study investigates the issue of political education in interwar Czechoslovakia. Society at this time placed great emphasis on the issue of political education for a number of reasons, above all as a means and method to defend and explain the benefits of the democratic political system to the public. Political education took place at various levels. It occurred as part of school curricula, but also as part of the activities of many political parties, associations and societies which strived to develop this kind of education in building up civil society. The culmination of all these activities was the founding of the Free School of Political Studies (Svobodná škola politický nauk), which was established in 1928 on the initiative of the Education Minister at the time and later Prime Minister, Milan odža. The school was constructed for journalists and all those interested in studying politics along the model of Britain’s School of Economics and Political Science. Although it never achieved recognition as a university over the whole period it was run, it was primarily designed for university students and in its overall activities the school represents the forerunner of political studies at universities in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic.