Abstract

The customary approach to the Prague Spring focuses on the struggle between the forces of Novotny's Ancien régime (the bureaucracy and the conservatives) and the new forces (the reformers, the liberals, and the progressives). Although on the level of practical politics it might indeed be useful to distinguish simply between “progressives” and “conservatives,” this distinction is too superficial for other purposes. On certain important issues, crucial differences emerged within the progressive camp — differences which stemmed from the participants' philosophical predilections if not from their class positions.

There were those who advocated well-controlled, guided reforms of the country's economic and political life—reforms which they expected, implicitly, at least, to be carried out from the top.