Speaker to discuss Benes' arguments on democracy vs. totalitarianism

In the winter of 1939 with World War II just a few months old, the exiled former president of Czechoslovakia, Edvard Benes, delivered a series of lectures at the University of Chicago that were later published in book form under the title "Democracy Today and Tomorrow."

In an Oct. 11 lecture at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, a leading scholar on Benes and the former Czechoslovakia will analyze Benes' arguments in favor of democracy as opposed to the rising totalitarianism of his day. He will also compare Benes' approach with three recent studies of the themes of Benes' lectures: "Democracy" by Robert A. Dahl (1998), "The Future of Freedom" by Fareed Zakaria (2003) and "The Law of Peoples" by John Rawls (1999).

Mojmir Povolny, professor of government and Wriston professor of social science at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wis., will deliver "Edvard Benes: Democracy Today and Tomorrow -- After 65 Years" at 3:30 p.m. in the Nebraska Union, 1400 R St. (room to be posted).

The lecture is free and open to the public and is made possible by a grant from the Czech Foreign Ministry to the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences, Nebraska Chapter, and the UNL Czech Komensky Club, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Povolny is the author of nearly 30 publications and numerous translations and has been involved in the movement of intellectual groups that opposed the Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe. He was executive secretary of the Economic Council of the Czechoslovak National Socialist Party, member of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and chairman of the Executive Committee of the Council of Free Czechoslovakia.

CONTACT: Mila Saskova-Pierce, Assoc. Professor, Modern Languages & Literatures, (402) 472-1336