The West-East gradient and regional development :the case ot the Czech RepubIic

Abstract

This paper empirically examines the role of West-East gradient for regional development. Despite problems with consistency of the data, the authors made an attempt to establish long-term time series of at least basic data covering the following spheres: demography, economy and social sphere. The results are rather varied, but the main conclusion is that despite a clear manifestation of the role of West-East gradient in several spheres, there is no fatalism (determinism) stemming from geographic position of the regions but quite a wide space for activity of individual actors