Czech Republic 1990–2000: Lessons from the Economic and Political Transformation

Until the 1989 velvet revolution Czechoslovakia was one of the most conservative socialist countries. Even compared to other former socialist countries in Central Europe its economy was exceptional as regards privatization with only 4 percent of GDP produced by the private sector and 10 percent produced by the cooperative sector in 1989. No experiments with liberalization of economic and political systems had been attempted in the 1970s and 1980s. The rigid party form had to live with the legacy of post-1968 normalization and ran the country. At that time, more liberal segments of the communist party and the Czechoslovak political and intellectual establishments were eliminated or expelled from the country. They were isolated or persecuted for as long as two decades.