B2 - History of Economic Thought since 1925Return

The study deals with the question of how much the post-war development of Czechoslovakia was affected by the Nazi central control model and the theory of Marxism-Leninism. The study searches for an answer through analysis of two questions: Could a different economic concept have been applied at all? Was the theory of Marxism-Leninism internally consistent and was it strong enough to solve the post-war restoration tasks? The author reaches her conclusion that Czechoslovakia's transfer to socialism was not based on the Marxist theory as a peculiar economic theory offering a new control concept, but, contrary to that, she believes that the key circumstance of the transfer was the economy with central and mandatory control applied during the Nazi occupation. As a result of that type of economy, a highly concentrated capital was transferred to the government's hands as a nationalized industry at the end of the war.