P21 - Socialist Systems and Transitional Economies: Planning, Coordination, and ReformReturn

Radovan Richta was a Czech academic, philosopher, sociologist, prognostic, and head of an interdisciplinary research team. He specialised in the issues of the scientific and technological revolution and its social and human contexts. Both in the East and the West, he was famous for the work of Civilization on the Crossroad, which in many ways surpassed its time. Richta (and his team of scientists) may perhaps be considered the predecessors of the Roman Club. His link is highly inspirational for the current reflection on the so-called fourth industrial revolution and civilizational milestones as well as system changes.

Democratically set ownership rights are the basic premise for a fully functioning liberal market economy. The restitution processes in the Czech Republic should have played an important role in rectifying the abuse of ownership rights during the period of the centrally-planned economy. Unfortunately, the asymmetries of the church restitutions, as the last process which should have been part of the rectification, i.e. the restoration of democratic ownership rights in the Czech Republic, became the catalyst for new injustices and grievances in relation to ordinary entitled persons to whom other restitution laws also applied.
In light of the above, this article contains an analysis of the restitutions of agricultural and forest assets and an analysis of church restitutions. The results of these analyses are compared in order to confirm the hypothesis that church restitutions were given preference over ordinary entitled persons. The conclusion to the article shows this to be fully in accordance with basic economic theories.

O. R. Lange, a Polish economist, statistician, econometrician, sociologist, politician and diplomat was classified as a reformist Marxist. He became famous for studies on planning and socialist economies. Lange demonstrates and proves the possibility of the existence of an effective socialist system. He also analyzed capitalist economy, e.g., the issue of cyclical fluctuations and unemployment.

Michał Kalecki was an original Polish economist, who is ranked among unorthodox Marxists. He focused mainly on issues of macroeconomic dynamics. He created the dynamic theory of effective demand, in which he overtook the more familiar concept of J. M. Keynes. Kalecki influenced many diverse economists, including, e.g., the first generation of post-Keynesian economics.

M. I. Tugan-Baranovsky was a Russian-Ukrainian economist, scientist, policy maker and journalist. He promoted the ideas of co-operativism. He tried to describe an eclectic synthesis of the marginal utility theory and the value theory of D. Ricardo and K. H. Marx. He is famous for the business cycle theory and he belongs among the best-known Russian economists.