Ota Šik
Ota Šik (/ˈʃik/ SHEEK; 11 September 1919 – 22 August 2004) was a Czech economist and politician. He was the man behind the New Economic Model (economic liberalization plan) and he was also one of the key figures in the Prague Spring.[1]
Early years
Šik was born in the industrial town of
Following the
Political career
The connections that Šik made at Mauthausen proved useful in his post-war political career. In the early 1960s he attempted to persuade the hardline president, Novotný, into loosening his rigid adherence to
Šik's reforms were launched in 1967, before Dubček came to power, but were heavily watered down by party apparatchiks who worried about losing control of the factories. The only palpable, and certainly the most popular, result of the reforms was the appearance of private taxis on the streets of
Following Dubček's election as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, Šik was made a deputy prime minister in April 1968 and he was the architect of the economics section of Dubček's
After the Prague Spring
When the tanks rolled into Prague, Šik was on holiday in
Šik left Yugoslavia in October 1968 and moved to Switzerland. In 1969, he returned to Prague and tried to convince his colleagues but his views were rejected. Thus, he returned to Switzerland, where he became an economics professor at the University of St. Gallen in 1970, holding the post until his retirement in 1990. After the Velvet Revolution, Šik became an economic advisor to the Czech president, but had no impact on actual economic policies. He became a Swiss citizen and lived there until his death.
Major works
Šik was known as a market socialist but through the time he became a proponent of social market economy instead of market socialism. His major works include:
- The Third Way: Marxist-Leninist Theory & Modern Industrial Society (1972)
- For a Humane Economic Democracy (1979)
- The Communist Power System (1981)
- Economic Systems (1989)
References
- ^ "Ota Šik". britannica.com/. Retrieved 2 February 2024.
- ^ "Miroslav Šik (1953)". www.pametnaroda.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2024-03-12.
External links
- Ota Šik Archive at marxists.org