Abstract
The Czechoslovak economic reform began about three years before the Prague Spring of 1968. The initial steps were in their impact on the decision-making institutions guided by technocratic considerations. In 1966 and 1967 a large proportion of the centrally fixed planning targets (production targets, manpower, investments) were suspended and greater powers of decision were granted to individual enterprises; the orders of the planning bureaucracy were replaced by economic policy instruments and indicative targets emanating from the centre; there was a change of direction from the fetishism of quantity to efficiency criteria; but in spite of all these improvements, the majority of workers were still excluded from the economic decision-making process.
A shortened version of a study preparedfor the Bundesinstitut für ostwissenschaftliche und internationale Studien, Cologne, in August 1975
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Borin, Max, and Plogen, Vera [1970], Management und Selbstverwaltung in der CSSR [Management and Self-Government in Czechoslovakia] (Rotbuch 4, West Berlin) pp. 74–88.
Deutscher, Issac [1967], Die unvollendete Revolution 1917–1967 [The Incomplete Revolution 1917–1967] (Frankfurt) pp. 38–40, 40–9.
Fišera, Josef and Vladimir [ 1970 ], ‘Die tschechoslowakischen Arbeiterrate’ [The Czechoslovak Workers’ Councils], Wiener Tagebuch [Vienna Diary], 9.
Gorz, André [ 1967 ], Der Schwierige Sozialismus [Difficult Socialism] (Frankfurt) pp. 117–18.
Kosta, Jiři [ 1973 ], ‘Sozialismus and Selbstverwaltung’ [Socialism and Self-Government J, Wiener Tagebuch, 2, p. 21.
Kosta, Jiři [ 1973 ], ‘The Main Features of the Czechoslovak Economic Reform’, in The Czechoslovak Reform Movement 1968, V. V. Kusin (ed.), p. 138. (German version, ‘Die tschechoslowakische Wirtschaftsreform der sechziger Jahre’, in Sozialistische Marktwirtschaften, H. Leipold (ed.) (Munich, 1975) pp. 53, 57.)
Kosta, Jiři [1974], Sozialistische Planwirtschaft [The Socialist Planned Economy] (Opladen) pp. 188–92, 199–202.
Kosta, Jiři [ 1975 ], ‘Betriebliche Selbstverwaltung und sozialistische Planwirtschaft’ [Self-Government in Enterprises and Socialist Planning], in Systemwandel und Demokratisierung [System Change and Democratisation] (Koln) pp. 162–8.
Musgrave, Richard A. [ 1968 ], Finanztheorie [Financial Theory] (German version, Tübingen ) pp. 6–19.
Pravda, Alex [ 1975 ], ‘Workers’Participation in Czechoslovakia 1968–1969’, paper delivered at the annual conference of NASEES, London, pp. 1–5, 9, 12–15, 16, 17–21.
Rudé Právo, [ 1968 ], Akění program KSČ [Action Programme of the Czech Communist Party], p. 297f.
Šik, Ota [1968], Plan a trh za socialismu [Plan and Market under Socialism] (Prague) Section II-2-c. (German version, Plan und Markt in Sozialismus (Vienna, 1967).)
Šik, Ota [ 1976 ], Das kommunistische Machsystem [The Communist System of Power] (Hamburg) pp. 28–38.
Švejnar, Jan [ 1974 ]. ‘Czechoslovakian Labor Relations: The Postwar Experience’ (Part ii: ‘From the Prague Spring to the Present Day’), Forum (Cornell University) pp. 128–31.
Editor information
Copyright information
© 1977 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Kosta, J. (1977). Workers’ Councils in the Prague Spring of 1968. In: Heathfield, D.F. (eds) The Economics of Co-Determination. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03117-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-03117-7_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-03119-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-03117-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Business & Management CollectionBusiness and Management (R0)