ABSTRACT
Participation in decisions about social priorities would become successively more concrete, although it would be real at all levels. Regional and local representative assemblies, and national, regional and local social bodies with functional responsibilities, would have resources at their disposal. Decisions about social priorities are inevitably political decisions. Broad social priorities and changes in strategic direction are decided through the democratic political process on the basis of alternative plan variants prepared by the national planning commission. The participatory democratic process through which overall priorities and the broad allocation of resources would be decided can be thought of as a political process of negotiated coordination. The political parties represented in the assembly would act in accordance with their values and in the spirit of the programmes they had proposed. Democratic planning involves the conscious determination of social priorities, at all levels, through a political process.
