Economic Reform in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

The present discussion of new methods of planning and management in socialist countries which has been carried on in the pages of MR and elsewhere, again demonstrates the fact that economics is among the most primitive of sciences. We have not even taken the first step in establishing a science—the agreed definition and consistent use of terms. The resulting rampant confusion would be of little moment if it were confined to political economists or if it were just a question of semantics. But the fact is that these problems are political and social as well as economic. The effects of our confusions extend far beyond our ranks and end in international repercussions not only between capitalist and socialist countries, but also among the socialist countries. We cannot understand what is meant by the "new systems of planning and management" unless we first discuss this problem of language.

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