Science & Tech Quote by Vaclav Klaus

Klaus is smuggling a warning into what sounds like technocratic reassurance: reform is never just a matter of correct policy settings. Calling the process an "art" does two things at once. It flatters the reformer as a kind of craftsman-politician, someone whose judgment can’t be reduced to spreadsheets, while also lowering the burden of proof when reforms hurt. If outcomes disappoint, the defense is ready-made: the science was sound, but the sequencing, the choreography, the timing with public tolerance and institutional capacity, was the real battlefield.

The insistence on "strategy" and "sequence" reflects the hard-earned politics of post-communist transition. Klaus, a key architect of Czech market liberalization in the 1990s, is speaking from an environment where the same reforms could look like liberation to some and looting to others. Privatization, price liberalization, fiscal tightening, legal frameworks, social safety nets: each has winners and losers, and the order determines whether you build legitimacy or ignite backlash. Sequence isn’t administrative detail; it’s narrative control. Move too fast and you create a vacuum where corruption and disillusionment rush in. Move too slow and old networks adapt and entrench.

There’s also a quiet claim of authority. "You have to develop a strategy" implies a central mind capable of seeing the whole board, even as democratic societies are messy coalitions, not singular players. The subtext is managerial and political: successful reform isn’t just choosing the right destination, but staging the journey so the public keeps walking, and your opponents don’t get to rename the map.