National Committee

(1) The local organs of state authority and administration in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. National committees exist at the local, city, district, and province levels. They are representative bodies of deputies elected through secret ballot under universal, equal, and direct suffrage for a term of four years.

National committees organize the planned economic, social, and cultural development of the territory under their jurisdiction and ensure the protection of the socialist economic system, public order, and the rights of citizens and socialist organizations; national committees also participate in strengthening the defense capacity of the republic.

National committees decide the major questions within their competence at plenary sessions held by province and district national committees at least four times a year and by city and local national committees at least six times a year. Every national committee creates a council to act as an executive organ with general competence; various commissions to act as initiating, monitoring, and executive bodies; and a committee of people’s control. Province, district, and city national committees create departments for the different branches of the national economy and for other relevant areas.

(2) The national affiliates of certain international nongovernmental organizations. For instance, the National Committee of Historians of the USSR is a member of the International Committee for Historical Sciences and the National Committee of Soviet Geographers is a member of the International Geographical Union.