ABSTRACT
Critical analyses of planned economies have tended to concentrate on such problems as rational investment choices, or the proper basis for planners’ decisions. These are indeed matters of great importance, to which the experience of the Soviet Union is highly relevant, but it is not to them that the present paper is devoted. Let it be assumed that the decisions of the central planning authority about economic behaviour in all its aspects accord with ultimate wisdom, however this may be defined. There remains the problem of having these decisions implemented at the level at which production takes place, for it remains true, in Russia as elsewhere, that planning authorities produce only official documents. The actual work must be done within an enterprise or firm, under the authority of a director. The director is told from above what he should produce, and what he is told accords with the plan, so on the face of it there is no problem, so long as he does what he is told. However, the situation is much more complicated in reality, and it is my belief that much goes wrong precisely at this stage.
