ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book sets out to describe the new problems as they have appeared in Britain, France and the Federal Republic of Germany, and to examine the various solutions that have been attempted or proposed. The book is about planning and policies for growth rather than about growth itself. The word planning is often used to describe a group of these policy innovations, usually associated with the neo-collectivist school of thought; and the term planned economy is used where such planning takes place. Most Western governments now recognize a wide range of objectives of economic policy. Many policy innovations have resulted from new emphasis on objectives such as faster growth or a fairer distribution of income. New thinking about economic objectives, and in particular the adoption of a growth objective, has been accompanied by considerable changes in the use of instruments of economic policy.
