Evolution of Milan Hodža Views on Theory of Agrarianism and Practices of ‘Agrarian Democracy’
Abstract
The formation and evolution of views on the theoretical and practical foundations of the agrarian ideology of the famous Slovak and Czech social and political figure M. Hodža (1878-1944) are analyzed in the paper.
The purpose of the study is to analyze the evolution of M. Hodža’s views on the political and economic components of the concept of agrarianism, as well as his practical steps as the Minister of Agriculture and Prime Minister of Czechoslovakia in the context of the implementation of the ‘agrarian democracy’ model.
Scientific novelty – the ideas of M. Hodža regarding the political and economic components of the concept of agrarianism are analyzed, and the periodization of M. Hodža’s agrarian views is proposed.
Conclusions. In the scientific and journalistic heritage of M. Hodža from the 1900s to the 1940s, there is a consistent development of the following key issues of the theory and practice of agrarianism: agrarianism and agricultural cooperation; agrarianism and Slavophilism; agrarianism and ‘agrarian democracy’; agrarianism and the ‘Federation of Central European States’. This gives grounds for distinguishing four stages in the evolution of M. Hodža’s agrarian views.
The first stage (1903-1924) covered the period from the establishment of the agrarian newspaper ‘Slovenský Týždenník’ by M. Hodža in 1903 to the foundation of a network of district credit cooperative societies throughout Czechoslovakia in 1924. The key issue, which M. Hodža worked on at that time, was agricultural cooperation as the economic basis of agrarianism.
In the second stage (1914-1924) – the scholar tried to combine the ideas of agrarianism and Slavophilism. The results of his work were publicly presented by M. Hodža in September 1924 in Ljubljana at the First Congress of the Slavic Union of Rural Youth (‘Svaz slovanské agrární mládeže’), where he gave a speech ‘Agrarianism in Slovenia’.
In the third stage (the second half of the 1920s – the second half of the 1930s) – M. Hodža fruitfully worked on the problem of ‘agrarian democracy’. During that stage, all the main components of his agrarian ideology were formed.
The fourth stage (1938-1944) covered the period started when M. Hodža gave up powers as the Prime Minister and the Czechoslovak agrarians once for all left the political arena in 1938 until he died in 1944. During that stage, M. Hodža focused on developing the project of the ‘Federation of Central European States’, which would have been united based on agrarianism and acted as an alternative to totalitarian states.
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