ABSTRACT
After prolonged hesitation and infighting between divergent forces within the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, finally in 1987 the decision was taken to follow the lead of Gorbachev’s perestroika and to adopt also a program of comprehensive reconstruction of the economic mechanism for Czechoslovakia. The reform concept itself, but even more so the specific reform measures are shaped by the inherent contradiction between the intended increased rights and responsibilities of the enterprises on the one hand, and the endeavours of the Communist Party to keep its “leading role” in macro-economic and micro-economic management on the other. The central five-year State plan is to be met by the enterprise and other economic organizations by a combination of uniform, long-term tax and payment rates, by virtually uniform normatives and to a lesser extent by direct tasks and state orders, and by mandatory limits of inputs.
