The people of Czechoslovakia have gone to the polls four times since the end of the Second World War to elect a national parliament—in 1946, 1948, 1954, and 1960. Although an analysis of the vote in May, 1946, is interesting and important for an understanding of the Czechoslovak situation, such an analysis would be of little value for the elections that were held after the coup d'etat of Prague in February, 1948. The principle of National Front balloting, in practice in 1948 although not codified until 1954, leaves the voter with practically no alternatives. Since the net affirmative vote for the candidates of the National Front is well over 90 per cent of the total vote, a key to understanding the uses of the Czechoslovak parliament must be found elsewhere than in analysis of voting behavior. Therefore, the elected deputies themselves are the subject of this inquiry.
The legal form of the Czechoslovak parliament was not particularly changed by the social and political events of the first postwar years (1945-48).