Abstract: Conflict or coordination are the most frequently used words describing the industrial relations in developed economies. What is the relationship between the biggest industrial actors in the former Czechoslovakia and is there any coordination? This paper tries to answer this question focusing on the coordination in the main economic spheres in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The research is based on the analysis of statistical data and a survey in which a group of experts completed a questionnaire stemming from the Varieties of Capitalism approach. Almost 30 experts representing employers, trade unions and the state from both countries provided insight into the amount of coordination that exists among the main economic actors. Our findings not only undermine the recent classifications of the Central Europe in the Varieties of Capitalism literature, but also show a slightly diff erent institutional setting of the industrial relations in these two post-communist countries. The main results of our research shows that there is an emerging pattern of ‘systematic un-coordination’ among the key spheres of the national economy as defined by Varieties of Capitalism. The authors conclude this article with a discussion regarding the results and limitations of their research.

Keywords: Varieties of Capitalism, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Liberal Market Economy, Coordinated Market Economy, Institutional Complementarity, Systematic Un-Coordination