Toward a Population Revolution? The Threat of Extinction and Family Policy in Czechoslovakia 1930s–1950s

Abstract

The 1930s and 1940s were a formative period in the development of family policy as a relatively independent branch of the state’s social policy in the Bohemian lands. During this time, several political regimes followed one another (liberal democracy, a conservative authoritative regime, the national socialism of the occupation, and postwar people’s democracy). Despite these political changes, family policy was determined by the discourse of the waning Western industrial society and intensifying nationalism throughout the period in question. The articulation of the national threat created the conditions necessary for active state intervention in the sphere of marital cohabitation and managed support of population growth. This entailed compensating families for preserving the nation as a whole by giving birth to a populous new generation. These efforts were often in conflict with the movement for equality among men and women and increased women’s participation in the labor market. The first part of this article describes the discourse of the nation under threat and its political consequences. The second half focuses on the formation of the social reform consensus during the Second World War and after peace was restored. The third part confronts experts’ proposals with political practice: despite the low number of positive legislative measures, this analysis reveals the evident continuity of efforts to create a conceptual, state-led family policy regardless of the vastly different ideologies of the political regimes mentioned.