ABSTRACT
On January 22, 1919, the interim (or “revolutionary”) National Assembly of the new state of Czechoslovakia met to debate a new municipal voting law. The proposed statute would abolish the complicated Habsburg era curial voting system and grant equal voting rights to all adult men and women in municipal elections. The law was widely praised for its progressive stance on political equality. The bill’s proponents presented it as a significant and necessary step in the creation of the new Czechoslovak Republic. In their introduction to the text, the law’s authors characterized their work as part of the “wave of democracy” that had swept Europe after the end of the First World War. In keeping with this trend, they said, “The idea of equality is becoming ever more a part of the moral consciousness of cultured nations.”1 The municipal voting statute would help bring Czechoslovakia into compliance with this new moral standard.
