Government of Czechoslovakia - Lower Levels - Regional and Local Levels

Regional and Local Levels

Below the level of the republics (the national administrations), in the 1970s and 1980s, Communist Czechoslovakia was divided into regions kraje, districts okresy, and communities (i. e. towns, villages etc.).

The principal organs of government at these levels, known as national committees, functioned in accordance with the principle of the so-called democratic centralism. The 1968 Constitutional Law of Federation specified that the national governments directed and controlled the activities of all national committees within their respective territories. The system of national committees was established at the close of World War II by the then-existing provisional government and was used by the communists as a means of consolidating and extending their control. On the local level, the membership of the national committees consisted of from fifteen to twenty-five persons. National committees on the higher levels were proportionately larger: national committees at the district level had from 60 to 120 members, and national committees at the kraje level had between 80 and 150 members. National committee members were popularly elected for five-year terms of office. Each national committee elected a council from among its membership. The council, composed of a chairman, one or more deputy chairmen, a secretary, and an unspecified number of members, acted as the coordinating and controlling body of the national committee. To expedite the work of the national committee, the council established commissions and other subcommittees and could issue decrees and ordinances within its area of jurisdiction. The national committees on the local level were assigned particular areas of jurisdiction, including maintaining public order and organizing the implementation of the political, economic, and cultural tasks assigned by the KSC and the federal government. The Constitution charged the national committees with the responsibility of organizing and directing the economic, cultural, health, and social services in their areas. The committees had also to "ensure the protection of socialist ownership" and see that the "rules of socialist conduct are upheld."