Lukes Publishes Article on Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk & Role of Czech President
Igor Lukes, Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University’s Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies, published a Seznam Zpravy article exploring why the office of the president is considered particularly important in the Czech political culture and how Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, one of the founders of the modern Czech state, contributed to this.
Lukes’ article, titled “Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk: Jeden z nás, a přitom nad námi (Tomas Garrigue Masaryk: One of Us, But Also Above Us),” is the first in a series of reflections on the role of Czech presidents from Masaryk to the present day in Czech history. The piece borrows a theme from Dostoyevsky’s The Grand Inquisitor, which argues that whoever wished to rule needed to employ three forces: miracle, mystery, and authority. Lukes believes that Masaryk was able to establish a new state, Czechoslovakia, at the end of World War I and ensure its legitimacy because he used all three forces to the hilt.
The full article can be read (in Czech) on Seznam Zpravy‘s website.
Igor Lukes is a past winner of the 1997 Metcalf Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2020 winner of the Gitner Prize for Faculty Excellence at the Pardee School. He writes primarily about Central Europe. His work has won the support of various other institutions, including Fulbright, Fulbright-Hays, the Woodrow Wilson Center, IREX, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Read more about Professor Lukes on his faculty profile.