ABSTRACT
One of the very significant omens of the time is the end of the Czechoslovak state, which disappeared from the political map of Europe on 1 January 1993, after nearly seventy-five years of existence—paradoxically enough, also due to the collapse of communism. The Czechoslovak Republic came into existence at the end of World War I, on the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Czechs have succeeded in transforming themselves into a modern European civil society during the course of the nineteenth century. As a vital, culturally developed, and economically strong national community, they became less and less able to tolerate inferior, second-rate status in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Though public policy debate has not seemed to play a significant, positive role in the process, the more relevant question today is its potential for developments ahead, in the "post-Czechoslovak" future.
