Economic Planning as a Political Process in Developing Countries

Abstract

In broad terms, economic planning may be said to have three types of political consequences: those that concern the choice of policies pursued by the government; those that relate to the structure of political institutions; and those that ramify throughout society as spillover effects resulting in changes in political pressures and affiliations. In turn, these diverse consequences may be viewed as flowing from (a) the economic philosophies of the planners; (b) the logic of the planning process; and (c) the stage of economic development. Elaborate taxonomy would require further sub-divisions corresponding to the form of economic planning in question (indicative or mandatory, medium-term or perspective, centralised or decentralised) and to the origin and destination (national or international) of its effects. Given, however, the heterogeneity of under-developed countries and planning processes, and in deference to Occam’s razor, such refinements can be omitted from a brief note on the outlines of the subject.