ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to assess how far the new policy succeeded in overcoming the obstacles to technological change inherent in the system of detailed planning, and what the consequences were when the New Economic System (NES) was de facto disbanded in 1971. German Democratic Republic (GDR) publications in the post-NES period indicate that the authorities were dissatisfied with the effectiveness of project selection. Two economists, W. Marschall and A. Lange, cited the findings of investigations into obstacles in the GDR’s “research-production cycle”. The problems of bureaucracy and plan coordination for technological change in the post-NES period were probably just as severe as in the period prior to the NES. Two important attempts were made to relieve the difficulties of plan coordination. One was the introduction of a special section “transfer” into the annual enterprise plans for science and technology in 1973/1974. The other attempt involved the introduction of “Coordination Plans” for the state science and technology plan.
