Democracy and Culture Studies Centre (CDK)

Democracy and Culture Studies Centre (Centrum pro studium demokracie a kultury, CDK) is an independent, non-profit educational and cultural organisation founded as a civic association in August 1993 in Brno, which continues in the work of some earlier initiatives devoted to the development of independent activities and publishing samizdat magazines before 1989.

Major goals of CDK are: to further constitution and development of democractic political culture, highlight the necessity of Christian values as fundamentals of European civilization, and emphasize importance of interconnection of political, economic and cultural areas. Following its objectives as already outlined, CDK undertakes its activities especially in two basic issue areas: questions of politics and society, and the role of religion in contemporary world respectively. With regard to the former, CDK declares its allegiance to liberal and conservative ideas; consequently, CDK does mediate these ideas to the public, but besides this it tries to contribute to their refinement and application in various dimensions of social and political life. As to the latter, CDK prefers open, ecumenical approach making it possible both to discuss developments in Christian thinking, dialogue among various Christian churches and relation of Christianity to other belief systems, and also to search for answers to questions about relevance of religious values in contemporary society.

Organizational structure

Issue areas, as elaborated by CDK, are also reflected in its internal organizational structure. CDK comprises two relatively independent, yet closely communicating institutes: the Institute for Politics and Culture (Institut pro politiku a kulturu, IPK) and the Institute of Christian Studies (Institut křesťanských studií, IKS). Apart from numerous publications, those are primarily expressed by an existence of two independent journals: The Politics Review (Revue Politika) and Proglas. In addition to these two institutes, the CDK also runs its own publishing house and DTP studio. Since its establishment, CDK has published about 300 specialist books and collected volumes.

The CDK Board is the governing body, and its decisions are carried out by the Executive Director.

Annual Report

• CDK’s Annual Report 2006