Káldor versus Varga – The Hungarian three-year economic reconstruction plan of 1947
Résumé
After a monetary reform in 1946, the Communists helped by Jenő Varga and the Social Democrats advised by Nicholas Kaldor each drafted an economic reconstruction plan introducing central planning. Having already campaigned for economic planning after the war, Káldor was also in favour of a Keynesian income and fiscal policy. Good trade relations with the Soviet Union were in his eyes a precondition for economic recovery and stability. But the non-participation of Hungary in the Marshall Plan weakened the authority of the Social Democrats vis-à-vis the Communists who were now pressing for a Soviet-type planning system and the dictatorship of the proletariat.