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EU membership and the rise of a foreign-led type of capitalism in the Czech Republic
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increased focus was placed on what we might refer to as reregulation. This is not be confused with the idea of a return of the socialist practices and redistributional policies. Rather, what the international organisations started to advocate was the reinforcement of state practices to provide a stable underpinning for international capital flows. The creating of markets and their institutional lock-in into the wider socio-economic system does in ECE not require state retreat but rather redesign.
Nor does it mean that the policy initiatives advocated by Western advisors
have resulted in the same outcomes for each country. Rather, these initiatives had to be translated into political and economic policies that at the one hand satisfied these institutions and at the other hand were politically feasible in the different national contexts. Capitalism in ECE has distinct features stemming from its Leninist legacy that stay intact as long as they do not hinder the lock-in into the world market. In the Czech case, this goes for tri-partite arrangements between the government, employers and organised labour. From the early 1990s on there appeared to be ‘something of a corporatist framework for managing the labor relations along German/Austrian lines’ (Rutland 1992: 121) that helped to maintain social peace. However, at the same time all initiatives remained with the Czech government, which is why David Ost called real corporatism in ECE an illusion (Ost 2000). Even the ministries that were thought to traditionally have ties with organised labour such as the ministry of Trade and Industry began to speak in terms of the ‘competiveness of Czech industry’ (FT 2001) and hence to adhere to the neo-liberal discourse.
The same goes for ownership structure, where, at first sight, we also seem to
witness the appearance of a German type of cross-ownership in which banks play an important role. But although it is true that the stock market is not the predominant place to raise money (see table 3) it should not be ignored that it is foreign banks, which control the Czech economy. Economic dependence on foreign investment - predominantly from the EU - is on the rise; a tendency that cannot be caught when looking at the national level type of capitalism in which banks are just simply banks, regardless of their ownership structure. (see tables 5 and 6).
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| | Authors: Vliegenthart, Arjan. |
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9
increased focus was placed on what we might refer to as reregulation. This is not be
confused with the idea of a return of the socialist practices and redistributional
policies. Rather, what the international organisations started to advocate was the
reinforcement of state practices to provide a stable underpinning for international
capital flows. The creating of markets and their institutional lock-in into the wider
socio-economic system does in ECE not require state retreat but rather redesign.
Nor does it mean that the policy initiatives advocated by Western advisors
have resulted in the same outcomes for each country. Rather, these initiatives had to
be translated into political and economic policies that at the one hand satisfied these
institutions and at the other hand were politically feasible in the different national
contexts. Capitalism in ECE has distinct features stemming from its Leninist legacy
that stay intact as long as they do not hinder the lock-in into the world market. In the
Czech case, this goes for tri-partite arrangements between the government, employers
and organised labour. From the early 1990s on there appeared to be ‘something of a
corporatist framework for managing the labor relations along German/Austrian lines’
(Rutland 1992: 121) that helped to maintain social peace. However, at the same time
all initiatives remained with the Czech government, which is why David Ost called
real corporatism in ECE an illusion (Ost 2000). Even the ministries that were thought
to traditionally have ties with organised labour such as the ministry of Trade and
Industry began to speak in terms of the ‘competiveness of Czech industry’ (FT 2001)
and hence to adhere to the neo-liberal discourse.
The same goes for ownership structure, where, at first sight, we also seem to
witness the appearance of a German type of cross-ownership in which banks play an
important role. But although it is true that the stock market is not the predominant
place to raise money (see table 3) it should not be ignored that it is foreign banks,
which control the Czech economy. Economic dependence on foreign investment -
predominantly from the EU - is on the rise; a tendency that cannot be caught when
looking at the national level type of capitalism in which banks are just simply banks,
regardless of their ownership structure. (see tables 5 and 6).
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