Politicized Economics or Economized Politics? Czechoslovak Economists and the Quest for “Third World” Development in the Era of Reform Communism

The paper analyses the scientific discourse that informed the Czechoslovak conceptions of development studies as well as the practice of development aid. On the example of scholarly outputs of two distinguished economists working at the Institute of International Politics and Economy — Blanka Šrucová and Jan Vraný — it explores the impact and process of adaptation of recent methodological influences from abroad onto the Czechoslovak development expertise. It situates the shifts in attitude towards the developmental assistance within the broader framework of Czechoslovak (economic) reform project as well as the global debates on the effectiveness of development strategies. The article claims that Czechoslovak economists used their transnational experience gained during missions abroad not only to “domesticate” recent trends in research and suggest more effective methods of Czechoslovak developmental assistance exported to the “Third World” but also to improve the conditions of national econom