Abstract
This book provides preliminary information about Central European economic thought development for approximately four hundred years. It is an introduction to a history of economic thought in Central Europe. We perceive Central Europe as a compact territory of the four present-day countries: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and the Slovak Republic. This region represents a geographical concept that has acquired a political and a cultural undertone. Central Europe varies culturally, historically, politically, and economically from Europe’s other parts and regions. After the introduction, the next chapter discusses the emergence of economic thought and its evolution until World War I. Chapter 3 includes the period between the two World Wars. Chapter 4 concentrates on the socialist period, while Chap. 5 deals shortly with the period after the socialist system’s break-up. The Appendix presents an incomplete list of economists born in Central Europe who made careers in Western countries, mostly in the twentieth century. Finally, we conclude.
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Notes
- 1.
In a similar spirit, see Mout (2006), Lindahl (2003), Kamusella (2012), Le Rider (2008), Wallace (2003). In different writings, Central Europe was also known as Mitteleuropa, l’Europe centrale, but also East-Central Europe, or Ostmitteleuropa. Before World War I, the concept of Mitteleuropa was perceived as a place where German ethnic, culture, and influence spread (Le Rider 2008). The German nation-state of 1871 was Kleindeutschland as it did not include the German-speaking areas of Austria-Hungary with which it would form Grossdeutschland, the dream of German nationalists before World War I. Kamusella (2012, p. 248). In contrast to the German concept of Central Europe as a space for German cultural, economic, and political expansion, Russians viewed Central Europe in terms of the Slavic world. Since the 1840s, different Pan-Slavism versions had become more widespread, Miller (1996, p. 7). However, after World War II in the Soviet discourse, there was no concept of Central Europe. Miller (1996, p. 15). Kobrinskaia (1997, p. 14) writes that Eastern Europe was used as a synonym for the world socialist system during the Cold War. Belonging to “former Eastern Europe” predetermined the mode of post-socialist transition bearing important psychological meaning—elites in East European countries perceived their future development in close cooperation with Western Europe. The primary goal of political elites was to get rid of this perception as “East European” and be instead considered “Central European.”
- 2.
“In fact, the cardinal rules of the monarchy’s history were that ethnic and political frontiers did not coincide, and that its diverse nationalities were scattered pell-mell throughout its territories. After 1918, the so-called successor states valiantly strove to end this unhappy state of affairs, and they succeeded to a large degree, thanks to the use of such modern techniques as forced assimilation, persecution, and expulsion.” Deák (1990, p. 12).
- 3.
In 1890 in Prešpurk (Posonium in Latin, Pressburg in German, Pozsony in Hungarian; from 1919 Bratislava), the population was around 52 000, about 60% were the Germans, approximately 20% the Hungarians, and around 17% the Slovaks. After 1919 Bratislava began to be Slovakized, and the proportion of the Slovaks and the Czechs increased. Before World War II, about 60% of the population were the Slovaks and the Czechs, 22% the Germans, and 13% the Hungarians. The foundation of Slovak State meant the expulsion of the Czechs and the deportation of Jews. After World War II German population was deported, too, and later partially Hungarian population. Besides, some upper-class families were expelled from Bratislava in the early years of communism and replaced by the proletariat families. As a result of these movements, currently, Slovaks represent around 90% of Bratislava’s population. Otto’s encyclopedia (1903, vol. 20), current Slovak official data, and Salner (2001).
- 4.
In 1880, Budapest’s population accounted for around 506 000, about 57% were the Hungarians, 35% the Germans, 8-9% the Slavs, and 0.5% the Romanians. According to the religion, approximately 68% were Roman Catholic, 19% Jewish, and around 11% protestants. In 2011 population size was about 1.7 million by ethnicity, 81% were the Hungarians, 1.1% the Romani, 1% the Germans, 0.4% the Romanians, 0.3 the Chinese, 0.1% the Slovaks, and the remaining did not declare their ethnicity. Otto’s encyclopedia (1891, vol. 4), and current Hungarian official data. Interestingly, there are tendencies also in the opposite direction. Urban (1991, p. 777) documents that in 1988, only 8000 people in Poland claimed German ethnicity. However, in 1991, “according to official estimates in postcommunist Poland, there were 350-400 000 Polish citizens who claimed German roots for their families.”
- 5.
Judt (1996, p. 54) argues that the Central European culture used to be cosmopolitan with most accomplished representatives were Ashkenazi Jews. Nevertheless, this culture was destroyed gradually in the twentieth century and made Central European cities just provincial cities, which lost their cosmopolitan character. Judt (1996) argues that these countries may be located in the middle of Europe, but their claim to a distinctive ‘Central Europeanness’ is ‘at best nostalgic, at worst bogus.’
- 6.
For example, after the break-up of socialism initially, these countries opted for a democratic path and only gradually began to differ in nation-building’s political character. However, still today, all these lands are members of the European Union and NATO.
- 7.
- 8.
Fischer , Sahay, and Vegh (1998, p. 7) compare the per capita income level in Western and Central European countries. From 1937 to 1992, their data document that Czechoslovakia reached a per capita income of 70% compared to the Western European average in 1937, but only 45% after the fascist and communist control ended. Note that in this period only for two to three years, Czechoslovakia was not under the totalitarian regimes.
- 9.
Maybe such considerations led Friedrich August von Hayek in the Road to Serfdom to advise the West not to get involved in this region “peopled by small nations, each of which believes equally fervently in its own superiority over the others, is to undertake a task which can be performed only by the use of force.” Hayek (1944, pp. 232-233). It seems Keynes held similar opinions. “Keynes lamented that the breakup of the old multinational empires of Europe created new frontiers ‘between greedy, jealous, immature, and economically incomplete, nationalist states’.” Markwell (2006, p. 20). See also Wolff (1994). The emphasis on the unity of one people entailed a lack of unity with any other people, and from such a concept, it was a very short step to intolerance. Webb (2008, p. 15).
- 10.
Some authors blame this nationalistic spirit on the over-blown importance of Central European intellectuals. The importance of Central European intellectuals reveals the limitations of political and economic elites as “Hungarians and Poles had no national bourgeoisie, the Slovaks did not even have a nobility, while the Czechs lacked both an upper bourgeoisie and an aristocracy.” Szakolczai (2005: 417-418). This had led the intellectuals to formulate “overblown and aggressive, mutually exclusive claims about the ‘missions’ of their own people.” Szakolczai (2005: pp. 417-418).
- 11.
We have taken this expression from the introduction to Robbins (1998, p. xvi).
- 12.
Political discontinuity also meant intolerance against some of the old academia’s representatives. For example, some professors lost jobs in universities that were shut down or relocated after World War I. Among them was Karl von Balás, who lectured at the short-lived Royal Hungarian Elizabeth University in Bratislava (1912-1918). After World War I, at German-speaking universities, one observed delay in replacing professors at vacated chairs by the Czechoslovak authorities. Šišma (2004, p. 64). Toward the end of the 1930s, Czech professors lost jobs in Slovak universities. In a similar spirit, non-Marxist professors lost jobs in the socialist regimes, and later Marxist professors were constrained after the break-up of the socialist regimes.
- 13.
- 14.
Only rarely such economists are listed in international reviews of the history of economic thought. International reviews typically list those with theoretically oriented contributions. For example, Blaug (1986), when considering one hundred great economists before Keynes, mentions only three economists from the region: Ladislaus von Bortkiewicz, Michal Kalecki, and Oskar Lange Furthermore, Blaug (1985), when considering one hundred major economists after Keynes, mentions only János Kornai from the region. However, Blaug’s list includes economists who originated from Central Europe and achieved fame in the West as Nicholas Kaldor, Tibor Scitovsky, and Jaroslav Vaněk. A Dictionary of Dissenting Economists edited by Arestis and Sawyer (1992) includes Nicholas Kaldor, Michal Kalecki, and Thomas Balogh originating from these lands. We recognize both groups of people. Those who left Central Europe and contributed to the general knowledge of economic theory. Moreover, those who stayed in Central Europe and worked their way in typically more complex and challenging conditions.
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Horvath, J. (2020). Introduction. In: An Introduction to the History of Economic Thought in Central Europe. Palgrave Studies in the History of Economic Thought. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-58926-4_1
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