Internationalisation of the State in the Czech Republic: Igniting the Competition for Foreign Investment in the Visegrád Four Region

Abstract

This article focuses on a key episode in the Czech political-economic history of the 1990s, the abandonment of ‘Czech capitalism’, and the switch towards the competition state and an economic model based on foreign investment. The account of the U-turn in the policy approach to foreign investors identifies domestic actors that have had a crucial role in organising political support for the competition state. These actors, which the author calls the ‘comprador’ service sector, have an important role in mediating the structural power of transnational investors and translating it into other forms of power within the state. These actors also had a major role in shaping the U-turn in policy in the Czech Republic.