The European alternatives to the liberal economies after the First World War: the authoritarian and conservative economic models of Spain and Portugal and the centrally planned economy of Czechoslovakia

Ing. Matteo Serra

Master's thesis

Abstract:

The goal of the submitted thesis is to analyse three anti-liberal political and economic model that existed in Europe from the first part of 20th century to the end of it: the Salazarism, the Francoism and the communist model of Czechoslovakia. The first part of the thesis is about the political and economic situation between 1918 and 1945 in the whole Europe, the second chapter is focused on the case of Portugal (analysing Salazar’s government using original and objective notices), the third one is concentrated on Francoist Spain (underlining the positive influence of Franco’s government refusing fallacious and partisans opinion about his policies), the fourth part analyses the completely different politic-economic model of Czechoslovakia (from its creation in 1918 to the ‘60s) and the last one reunified in a single chapter the protagonists of the thesis, to understand the efficiency (or inefficiency) of their anti-liberal economic and political models and to underline what happened when they have begun the road to the liberalism (even joining the European Union). In the conclusion of the thesis the stress is put on the economic efficiency and on the great results obtained by Franco and Salazar, while the analysis show that socialism had reached only acceptable social results.

Keywords

Portugal, Salazar, Spain, Franco, Czechoslovakia, Masaryk, Ota Šik, autocracy, economy, GDP, wellness, social policies, welfare, minimum wage, Germany, economic reform, economic development.

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 4. 12. 2017

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 20. 2. 2018
• Supervisor: doc. Ing. František Svoboda, Ph.D.
• Reader: prof. Ing. Juraj Nemec, CSc.

Masaryk University

Faculty of Economics and Administration

Master programme / field:
Economic Policy and Administration / Public Economics and Administration (eng.)