Czechoslovak economist who designed a 'third way' between plan and market
At the December 1967 Central Committee plenum, Šik became the first to openly demand Antonín Novotný's resignation, declaring that economic reform was impossible without political change, two decades before Gorbachev.
A Czechoslovak economist and politician who was the architect of the Prague Spring's economic reforms. His 1964 book on socialist commodity relations outlined a New Economic Model combining planning with market mechanisms, and in December 1967 he publicly denounced the Novotný regime before the Central Committee, arguing that economic reform was impossible without political change. Appointed deputy premier in Dubček's 1968 cabinet, he was on holiday in Yugoslavia when Warsaw Pact tanks rolled into Prague and spent the rest of his life in Swiss exile, theorizing a 'third way' between capitalism and Soviet-style socialism.
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1940Joined the Communist Party and the anti-Nazi resistance
- 1940~1945Imprisoned at Mauthausen concentration camp
- 1961Director, Economics Institute, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
- 1962Member, Central Committee of the KSČ
- 1968.04~1968.12Deputy Premier and coordinator of economic reforms
- 1970~1990Professor of Economics, University of St. Gallen
- 1990Economic advisor to President Václav Havel
Related historical events
- 1965–1970The Kosygin ReformMirror of reformAs Czechoslovak deputy premier and architect of market-oriented economic reform, his blueprint convinced Soviet conservatives that economic reform equaled political thaw.
- 1968The Prague SpringDeputy premier in charge of economic reformIn April 1968, he became deputy premier and economics minister and took charge of economic reform in the Dubček government.
The New Economic Model and Economic Reform
Building on work at the economics institute he headed, the Czechoslovak Communist government adopted the New Economic Model in 1965. Intended as a limited reform to revive industrial growth, it sought to reduce the scope of central planning and expand the role of the market. Šik presented it as a “third way” between communism and capitalism. Appointed deputy prime minister and economics minister in April 1968, he took charge of economic reform in the Dubček government. The Warsaw Pact invasion on August 20 prevented the plans from being carried out. Šik was in Yugoslavia at the time and moved to Switzerland that October. After the Communist government fell in 1989, President Václav Havel appointed him to an advisory board of prominent Czechs living abroad. Šik nevertheless criticized rapid economic liberalization, warning that an immediate end to state subsidies would wreck many large state-owned enterprises. His position showed that his reform program was not simply a transition to capitalism.