Vol.:(0123456789) Studies in East European Thought (2023) 75:33–51 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11212-021-09456-9 1 3 Czechoslovak intellectual debate on the crisis of democracy in the 1930s Marián Sekerák 1 Accepted: 10 November 2021 / Published online: 20 January 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2022 Abstract The issue of the crisis of democracy has been debated abundantly and intensively in recent years. The body of academic literature on the topic has gradually increased. However, a similar debate took place almost one-hundred years ago in the Central European region. At that time, the debate was closely intertwined with the geopoliti- cal situation, especially with the rise of fascism and Nazism. The paper conceptual- izes the intellectual discussion on the reasons of the democratic crisis in the 1930s in Czechoslovakia from a sociological and philosophical perspective. The opinions of important Czech intellectuals, such as František Modráček, Emanuel Rádl, Karel Čapek, Edvard Beneš, František Žilka, F.X. Šalda, T.G. Masaryk, J.B. Kozák, and J.L. Fischer, are clarifed. Furthermore, some main features of the nature of the past and present crises of democracy are compared. Keywords Crisis of democracy · Czechoslovakia · 1930s · Intellectuals Introduction Representative democracy has become “the only game in town” in the vast majority of todays’ countries. A large number of people around the globe have signifcantly benefted from their homelands’ adoption of the democratic form of government, in particular when it comes to the possibility of participation in governance, the rotation of those who govern, and civic self-development. But some expectations associated with democracy go hand in hand with this as well. Citizens rightfully expect an adequate level of personal and national security, a decent standard of well- being, and fair and honest behaviour from their elected representatives. If a demo- cratic state fails to satisfy this, if governance appears to the citizens as inefective, it can lead to their disappointment and disillusionment, and thus to their increasing * Marián Sekerák marian.sekerak@ambis.cz 1 AMBIS College, Lindnerova 575/1, 180 00 Prague 8 – Libeň, Czech Republic