Abstract
The article deals with the concept of a market economy in constitutional law. Looking back at Czech history, it is not entirely certain in which periods the Czech lands could be called a market economy.
By market economy, we understand an economy in which the quantity and price of goods and services produced are determined by market mechanisms - the clash of supply and demand. In such an economy, the market determines the answers to the questions 'what to produce, how, and for whom'.
The opposite of this concept is a centrally planned economy, where these questions are decided by the state's command and allocation decision-making system. Without any doubt, the Czech lands were not a market economy from 1948 to 1989.
The transformation of the socialist national economy into an economy controlled by market mechanisms is considered one of the main aspects of the societal revolution in November 1989. Our Constitution protects many achievements of the revolution itself.
However, as carefully as we might read it, we would find no mention of a market economy or its aspects. We might be somewhat more successful in the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms, which in Articles 11 and 26 protects property rights and the freedom of enterprise.
These, however, are only basic, not exhaustive, prerequisites for the existence of a market economy. If we were to conclude that our constitution protects a market economy, we must interpret it more broadly.
And few articles of the Constitution say so much about our state in so few words as the very first one. Therefore, we could infer constitutional protection of the market economy only by considering it a part of a democratic legal state.
Contemporary China gives us an example that a predominantly market economy is certainly not a sufficient condition for democracy. But is it a necessary condition? Is democracy conceivable only in conjunction with market mechanisms, or can we imagine a stable and sustainable democratic society that can detach itself from market mechanisms?