체코의 민주적 전통과 유산

A study on the democratic traditions and legacies in Czech Republic - Focus on the ‘Charter 77’ and ‘Civic Forum’ -

The purpose of this paper is to analyze what has an influence on the democratization in Czech Republic after 'Velvet Revolution' in 1989. It has been said that Gorbachev effects as outer environmental roles, the structural crisis of communist party, the development of information and mass communication had contributed to the collapse of communist regimes in Eastern Europe. In this paper, I suppose that the most important reason to lead the end of communist system in Czechoslovakia was the change of minds among people. The two major groups which made the such changes were Charter 77 and Civic Forum. Charter 77 and Civic Forum had persevered in their efforts to preserve the democratic traditions and legacies which had been maintained in Czechoslovakia since the First Republic (1919-1938). In this paper, I insist that Charter 77 and Civic Forum had kept the democratic traditions and legacies even in the era of communist regime. And the democratic traditions and legacies which had been inherited from the two groups have been the primary factors of successful transition to democracy after 1989. For analyzing these facts, I classified this paper into five chapters. The first part of them is as an introduction. In the second part, I dealt with correlation between democratic transition and democratic traditions. And in the third part, I analyzed the functions and influences of Charter 77 in the period of communist regime. In the forth part, I focused the 'politicalization' of charter 77 and the establishment of Civic Forum in the middle of Velvet Revolution. Finally, the fifth part is as an conclusion. In conclusion, I ascertained Charter 77 had maintained the democratic traditions and democratic legacies and had spreaded them all over the nation. For these reasons, democratic traditions and legacies could be alive in the communist era and still have influenced on the fast and successful transition to democratic consolidation in Czech Republic.