The Rise of the 'Grand Entrepreneurs' in the Czech Republic and Their Contest for Capitalism

Bibliographic Data

ID10565780
AuthorsVladimír Benáček (0000-0002-4534-7310, Czech Academy of Sciences, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume42
Issue6
Pages1151-1170
Publication date2006-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueCzech Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0288 • E-ISSN: 2336-128X
PublisherInstitute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (PUBLISHER • CZ)
DOI10.13060/00380288.2006.42.6.03
OpenAlexW1994230243
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited28

It is argued in the article that the peaceful transition to capitalism in communist countries was not possible without the co-action of the nomenklatura, whose interest was to transform their informal access to state-owned capital into an authentic 'grand entrepreneurship'. The necessary acquisition of physical capital was achieved by means of mass privatisation schemes in which the nomenklatura took advantage of their social capital and information asymmetries. In the Czech case, there were three social groups competing for a position among the new entrepreneurial elite. The initially large gains of the nomenklatura gradually eroded when new businesses opened to domestic and international competition, where competitiveness depended on endowments of human (entrepreneurial) and economic capital. In the subsequent wave of ownership restructuring, initiated after 1994, the former nomenklatura was partially squeezed out of the tradable sector, which was occupied by better skilled foreign and domestic entrepreneurs. The exiting entrepreneurs converted their holdings into consumer goods, or defected to sectors less open to competition, where the alignment of social capital and bureaucracy persisted. Their position depends now on the pending reforms of public administration and the search for a more efficient social model

Business · Capitalism · CONTEST · Czech · Economic history · Economic system · Economics · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Law · Philosophy · Post-Communist Economic and Political Transition

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