THE HUMAN FACE OF SOCIALISM: The Political Economy of Change in Czechoslovakia

by George Shaw Wheeler ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 18, 1973

An American economist trained in the state capitalism of the New Deal who served as head of de-Nazification and manpower programs in the American zone of occupied Germany, Wheeler fled the Cold War witchhunters of the West and joined the new Soviet-installed Communist regime in Czechoslovakia as a top economic adviser. His book is a polemic favoring a combination of centralized planning and decentralized economic decision-making, plus political democracy. Wheeler reveals in the course of his arguments the decline in Czech labor efficiency, imbalances in the ratio of consumption to investment, and the 1963 fall in national income that gave rise to the marketplace economics of Ota Sik and others -- who in turn derived much from the Soviet economists of the '60's. Wheeler cites personal observations of farmers and workers balking at the introduction of machinery for fear of losing work points; and managers fearing prison if accounts do not document the use of every scrap of wire. But his evaluation of the Czech politicoeconomic system misses the mark, largely because of an unconscious or half-conscious pro-Soviet bias. The issue is not the Czech economy in itself, but its relations with the Soviet and Western blocs; e.g., the unfavorable balance of trade vis-a-vis the Soviets, which the Russians were determined to maintain in 1968, and the need for Western capital investment, which the Russians suppressed. Thus, while he ritualistically denounces the 1968 Soviet invasion, he cannot explain it. He also maintains that the Slansky purge trials of 1951 were merely concocted by ""agents of Beria""; and he says nothing about his own activities at the time or why he was never touched by the post-invasion purges from 1968 on until he left Czechoslovakia in 1971 for a professorship at Washington State University. Despite his pro-Russian line, however, the book does offer economists and political readers a worth-while study of recent economic history in Czechoslovakia.

Pub Date: June 18, 1973

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Lawrence Hill

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 1973

Categories: NONFICTION