Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (WFAC)

Czechoslovak Social Democracy
The Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Czech: Československá sociální demokracie, ČSSD) is a social democratic political party in Czechoslovakia. It is the major centre-left party and one of the major political parties in Czechoslovakia. It is a member of the Party of European Socialists and the Socialist International. Before adopting the current title in 1991, the ČSD was named Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana, ČSSD) from 1945 to 1990.

History
It was founded on 7 April 1878 as the The Social Democratic Czechoslavonic party in Austria (Czech: Sociálně Demokratická strana Českoslovanská v Rakousku) in Austria-Hungary representing the Kingdom of Bohemia in the Austrian parliament. Its role in the political life of the empire was one of the factors that lead to the creation of independent Czechoslovak Republic. During the First World War there were sharp ideological divisions within the Social Democratic Party between supporters of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy (B. Šmeral) and those backing Masaryk and an independent state (F. Modráček, F. Soukup, R. Bechyně, V. Tusar). Over time, the latter group gained predominance and actively joined in the anti-Austrian resistance.

In the first Czechoslovak Republic, the Social Democrats were a powerful force gaining 25.7% of the votes in the Parliamentary elections of April 1920. However, the party soon became split over whether to join the Comintern. This artificially induced confrontation ended in a fight for the party headquarters (Lidový dům) in December of 1920. In 1921 the party fractured, with a large part of its membership forming the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovak Social Democrats emerged from the conflict in a much weakened position.

For the next ten years the new leadership attempted to regain its lost position. A breakthrough came with the leadership of Antonín Hampl, and subsequently the party platform of J. Stivín, which was adopted at the 16th Congress in 1930. This platform was loosely coordinated with similar efforts of the national socialist party (Beneš’s platform was approved a year later). A great success of Hampl’s leadership was the founding of the Czechoslovak Social Democratic International at the Smíchov Merger Congress in January 1928. The Social Democrats were one of the most important parties of the First Republic, represented in an overwhelming majority of coalition governments and counting President T. G. Masaryk among their supporters.

In 1969 the coalition of the Republican Party (RS) and the liberal Free Democrats (SD-LS) fell and a coalition between ČSSD, the christian democratic ČSL and SĽS was formed under the leadership of Prime Minister Alexander Dubček. Enjoying not only vast popular support but also respect by his opponents, Dubček expanded the welfare state was considerably, while improving injury and sickness benefits, pensions, unemployment benefits, housing allowances, basic subsistence aid allowances, and family allowances and living allowances. Social spending was almost doubled between 1969 and 1981.

Name changes

 * 1878–1893: The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Party in Austria (Sociálně-demokratická strana českoslovanská v Rakousku) – part of Social Democratic Party of Austria
 * 1893–1918 The Czechoslavonic Social Democratic Workers' Party (Českoslovanská sociálně demokratická stranu dělnická) – independent party
 * 1918–1938: Czechoslovak Social Democratic Worker's Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana dělnická)
 * 1945–1990: Czechoslovak Social Democratic Party (Československá sociálně demokratická strana)
 * Since 1990: Czechoslovak Social Democracy (Československá sociální demokracie)

Federal level

 * National Assembly (1920–1945)


 * Federal Assembly (since 1946)

National level

 * Czech National Assembly (since 1946)
 * Slovak National Assembly (since 1946)