The Problem and its Solution

Abstract

Can a ‘planned economy’ fashion its economic development in any way that it pleases? Not only has it to take into account the important limitations fixed at any one time by natural resources, technology, geography,¹ and foreign economic relations; a still more fundamental issue concerns the structure and growth of that economy as they are affected by influences which are generated within the chosen forms of economic structure. Such influences must in turn be affected by the aims being pursued by the government and the ruling party, as well as by other circumstances, but they arise spontaneously and act autonomously, conceivably in a manner that is at cross-purposes with those aims.