Abstract
According to Vaclav Klaus, integration into the European Union does not go together with strong states and unregulated markets. This chapter contests the idea of a simple trade-off between integrating into the EU and leaving state power unabated. Though it will be argued that the character of the Czech state has fundamentally altered through its encounter with the European Union (EU), the Czech state, in interaction with transnational actors such as the EU, still plays a vital part in the shaping and regulating of the Czech economy. This chapter departs from the idea that what we are witnessing in the transitional economies of East Central Europe (ECE) is the transnationalization of the state, and in particular the transnationalization of governance. In discussing the politics of corporate governance regulation in the Czech Republic, it seeks to contribute to the discussion of state and society in ECE by challenging two fundamental premises that lie at the heart of most of the literature on the transition.
Our task is different. We should not Europeanize issues, but fight for the preservation of basic civil, political, and economic liberties. We need the institutional framework that makes them possible. We need unregulated markets; we need states to guarantee and safeguard the rule of law. The alternative is a non-state, post-democracy, and an administered society.
Václav Klaus, President of the Czech Republic Speech at the Fraser Institute, November 2004
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Endnotes
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© 2008 Arjan Vliegenthart
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Vliegenthart, A. (2008). Transnational Actors and Corporate Governance in ECE: the Case of the EU and the Czech Republic. In: Pickles, J. (eds) State and Society in Post-Socialist Economies. Studies in Central and Eastern Europe. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230590922_3
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