The Economists and the Research in Political Economy in Times of Normalization. Economic Institute of Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and the Pre-conditions for an Economic Transformation.
Abstract
The paper focuses on the development of the political economy during the normalization period in Czechoslovakia. It analyses the importance of a system theory as a common language of both the sicentific community and the communist state and party organs, and points out its compatibility with the official ideology of the normalization.
The discourse of system theory and system planning replaced the rejected language of market socialism of the 1960's and became popular both among the economists, for whom it meant a possibility to further develop their own discipline, and among the state bureaucrats, for whom it represented a suitable part of the technocratic planning utopia. The paper also stresses that the presence of an active group of economists was an important factor that shaped the future post-communist transformation.