The development of thinking on the Czechoslovak economic transformation

Thinking among professional economists on the post-1989 Czechoslovak transformation reflected ideas they had developed over the preceding decades. The repressive "normalisation" period, after reform attempts of the late 1960s, led to a division into generational groups. An older group of economists, officially silenced from 1970, developed a conception of a gradual transformation with continuing substantial state ownership. Among a younger generation, careful to protect their careers, Václav Klaus established his position as a leading figure in the debates that were for a time permitted, but these did not lead to a coherent economic strategy. Comparisons with Hungary and Poland show similar attractions for the ideas of Mises and Hayek, but also a developing recognition in those countries that their critique of socialism was not enough for a reform strategy. The slower pace of pre-1989 economic change and political liberalisation in Czechoslovakia and restricted scope for debate and discussion helped those economists who believed that the fastest possible privatisation would be possible to triumph politically.