ABSTRACT
In 1961—1962 an improved planning methodology for science and technology was also announced and took the form of the “Plan for New Technology”. Despite these modifications to the policy-making and planning processes, the party leadership had apparently begun to recognise that the policy of detailed central planning along Soviet lines would not, as hoped, stimulate a rate of technological change far exceeding that under capitalism. Amongst supporters of the regime there was a widespread notion that central planning would efficiently regulate all aspects of the national economy, including technological change. The planning of technological change in the German Democratic Republic (GDR) was characterised by naive optimism, schematism. A common assumption of GDR writings on technological change was that under conditions of socialism, R&D projects could be selected in a more “rational” way than under capitalism. The process of project selection was not restricted to the R&D group and the central planning agency.
