The Czechoslovak political system in the period 1945–1948

If we want to comprehend Slovakia's position within the restored Czechoslovak Republic, and the development of Czech–Slovak relations during the period 1945–1948, we must first clarify the character of the political regime at that time. The political system formed in Czechoslovakia immediately after the end of the Second World War was not a parliamentary democracy, but neither was it a totalitarian regime. It contained heterogeneous elements. The political actors themselves gave the system various labels. The Communists called it a ‘people's democracy’ because they wanted to emphasise its difference to the pre-war form of parliamentary democracy, which they called formal (bourgeois) democracy. They regarded people's democracy as a temporary stage on the road to a Soviet-style system. Edvard Beneš, President of the Czechoslovak Republic, spoke of a socialising democracy. Other adjectives or descriptions were also used. Today, the majority of Slovak and Czech historians describe the people's democratic regime of this period as a limited and regulated democracy with closed plurality.

Although the non-communist parties emphasised the legal continuity of the Czechoslovak Republic after 1945, and the validity of the 1920 constitution, in reality the post-war political system was significantly different from the political system of the First Czechoslovak Republic of 1918–1938. Before the establishment of the Temporary National Assembly in October 1945, the constitutional powers of the president had been significantly increased. Beneš produced legislation by means of decrees, based on proposals from the government. The National Assembly (parliament) had one chamber.