EN
The article summarizes discussions and ideas of the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century expressed by the Czech society and its political leaders on introduction of the universal suffrage and on the appropriate level of its equality. While putting opinions oscillating between conservatives, socialists, liberals and liberal democrats into the context of similar all-European debates, the article deals with arguments of various political and Word view-related groupings and summarizes causes and results of individual attitudes toward solving this crucial issue of the modern European society. On top of the political and social impact of the universal suffrage introduction it also takes into consideration the gender problem, i.e. the admissibility of the women’s suffrage.