Participation in the National Development Plan and the Concept of Economic Decisions

Abstract

The advantages and disadvantages of indicative planning or programmed economic planning in a market economy are well known.² The basic differences between this method and the imperative methods of planning in communist countries have become evident during the course of the last fifteen years, with regard both to the techniques and the application. The pessimistic judgments of those who once thought that flexible programmed planning was only an imperfect and incomplete imitation of the Stalinist Five-Year Plans, and a form of transition towards the general bureaucratization of the economy, have not been confirmed by recent developments. On the contrary, a tendency towards less rigidity in collectivist planning has recently been observed, as evidenced by the Yugoslav experiment and by Kruschev’s principles of decentralization. The far-reaching and little known changes in Soviet planning which are now taking place³ seem to demonstrate methodological concerns analogous to those previously felt in Western Europe. Both the duration and the scope of the experiments with indicative planning in France, including the active participation of both employers’ and workers’ representatives, provide ample justification for the detailed references contained hereinafter.

The author, who is a member of the Faculty of Law and Economics of the University of Lyons, is not an official of the French planning services; the views expressed hereafter reflect his personal opinion only and are in no wise those of the French authorities.