History and Concept of the Czechoslovak Economic Reform (1965-1969)

The study describes the concept of the Czechoslovak economic reform prepared in 1964-65 and introduced gradually in 1966-68. The reform was, however, never fully implemented, and was scrapped following the political changes of 1968/69. The brief introduction gives an outline of the causes which created the conditions favouring the elaboration of the draft of a new economic system which was subsequently accepted by the political leadership of the country. The next section of the study summarizes the origin, development and demise of the reform, whose nature can be expressed by the motto from "decentralization to democratization". The main part of the study is the chapter devoted to the description and analysis of the major features of the proposed reform concept as it was formulated during the Prague Spring of 1968. These basic features are: (1) macro-economic planning, (2) a regulated market mechanism, and (3) the democratization of decision-making. The concluding part of the study puts forward the view that the mentioned three features point to a system presenting an alternative to those that exist in the East and in the West. The statistical appendix lists and comments on data illustrating the economic results of the reform endeavour. A selection of literature compiled at the end is confi ned to studies published on the subject mainly by Czechoslovak economists living in the Western "exile".economic history of Czechoslovakia, economic reforms, planning, market mechanism