ABSTRACT
The 'Order of Planning of the National Economy 1981-85' would have been the instrument by which to take into account the organisational innovations and to bring about an improvement in planning. The minimum target/obligatory target, differentiated by concrete numerical values and addressed to particular economic units, for the drawing up of the plan draft and the final enterprise plan, on the other hand, applies only to that particular enterprise and is intended to be 'tailor made' for it. The formal structure of the PO will therefore be described in outline, without recounting all the alterations as to content that were introduced in the various areas of planning in the years from 1980. The fate of the first and especially of the second PO makes it appear doubtful whether the German Democratic Republic (GDR) can fully succeed in making the five-year plan serve methodologically, legally and as regards its content as the chief instrument for steering economic activity.
