‘An Atmosphere of Waffle and Woolliness’: British Developmental Aid and Economic Transformation in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

Discussions of the Thatcherite foreign policy often centre exclusively on the Cold War and especially on the relationship with the USSR. Therefore, the British relationship with smaller communist states is often unexplored, even though it is where British influence was most prominent. The brand of political and economic thinking espoused by British Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher found avid disciples in the newly democratic Czechoslovakia in the 1990s. A group of influential Czechoslovak politicians and officials led by Finance Minister, and later Czech Prime Minister, Václav Klaus sought to transform the Czechoslovak communist economy into a free market one that roughly followed Thatcherite lines. This was not only because they felt an ideological closeness to Thatcher but also because Britain was one of the few countries at the time that had experienced a large-scale privatisation of industries. Therefore, the reformers saw it as a model. The Prime Minister reciprocated these warm feelings. She authorised the sending of a team of British experts to Czechoslovakia, with the goal of aiding its economic reform programme. British advisers greatly contributed to privatisation and other schemes, especially on the practical side.