This paper deals with the changing face of the electoral culture in City of Brno local politics, analysing changes in electoral strategies and tenure of power in the case of the German Liberal Party.
2
Dostęp do pełnego tekstu na zewnętrznej witrynie WWW
At first, this study briefly introduces the method of generational approach, in particular with a view to using the canonical texts of the sociologist Karl Mannheim and German historians. The author emphasises the importance of this method for capturing some aspects of social changes and he consequently applies it to the topic of the generational revolt in the socialist camp between the years 1900–1920. According to the author the fundamental outlines of the impact of experience on the generation under research lie in its fight against Austrian militarism and clericalism; in addition World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution also contributed to the extension of this experience within society as a whole. A dogmatic version of Marxism and the class struggle was applied to the above mentioned experience in line with a specific age-related striving for „real socialism“. Relatively small groups of politically involved left-wing youths mobilized the major part of the public in this manner and significantly broadened the range of public discourse. These radical youths attempted, with partial success, to elaborate a concept of a cultural alternative, based on socialist principles, against both the Austrian dynastic conservative state and the inter-war Republican regime and last but not least against the revisionist-minded leadership of the Social Democratic Party. However, the shift from an age-specific revolt to voicing concrete political demands in the context of developments in Bolshevik Russia resulted in the splitting of the generational revolt and thus its consequent collapse around 1920. Yet, the very existence of this alternative vision, promoted by the generation under research, substantially changed the form of contemporary discussion about many social issues and represented a very important part of the changes which Czech society experienced in the period under research.