ABSTRACT
The contribution of a national programme to an economic policy aimed at maintaining a sustained high rate of growth has been widely discussed in France during recent years. The origin of the theory of demand expectations was M. Monnet's concept of the economic Malthusianism into which the prewar French economy had declined owing to the pessimism of entrepreneurs, and his determination to inject some optimism into them by means of plan targets. An indicative plan is also conceived to be a detailed means of reducing the element of uncertainty inherent in a market economy. The distinction between a system of industrial target planning and reliance on a few global and public sector targets is very clearly brought out in the Medium-term Economic Programme. The possibility that indicative planning will lead to a reduction of competition and even actively encourage restrictive agreements between firms raises the extremely important question of the co-existence of programmes with competition.
