Planning can be considered as a special form of social activity or a specific management function. It acts as an effective tool for implementing state programs. The main objects of this activity throughout the country are the social sphere and the economy. Directive planning is one of the forms of program implementation that was used in Soviet times. Let's consider it in more detail.
General information
The socialist economy has a number of specific features. It is provided by a special form of managing the national economic complex. It is central planning. Despite the fact that the Soviet regime has remained in the past, at present this form of government is often used along with market mechanisms. This is primarily due to the fact that when forming new conditions for the functioning of the national economic complex, it is necessary to predict development prospects.
Goals
Planning is a decision-making process based on a synthesis of the source data. It involves the definition and scientific justification of the goals, ways and means of achieving them using a comparative assessment of various options and choosing the best of them in terms of the expected development. State planning connects all production factors, ensures the maintenance of a balance of value and natural-material flows. It contributes to the efficient and rational use of available resources for the implementation of tasks. The essence of the activity is not to develop and bring numerous results to the immediate performers, but to set goals for the proposed development and develop means for their real achievement. Depending on the form of manifestation, strategic, indicative and directive planning are distinguished. In modern conditions, the first and second are considered the most common.
Directive planning system
It involves the development of programs that have the force of legal law, as well as the means and mechanisms for their implementation. Created schemes are binding. In this case, the officials responsible for the entire process are determined. Many people of the older generation are well aware of what a state plan is. The USSR and Eastern European countries often used the scheme in question in managing the national economic complex. With the help of the developed programs, the government directly influenced all its spheres and links. The USSR State Planning Commission was targeted in nature and was distinguished by exceptional detail. Meanwhile, in practice, he quite often remained on paper rather than completely discredited himself.
Specificity
Directive planning is a form of management that involves strict adherence to discipline, the responsibility of enterprises, officials, economic bodies for failure to fulfill assigned tasks. It is accompanied by strict control of output and resource allocation. Each supplier is attached to its buyer, and the consumer, in turn, knows from whom he will receive components, semi-finished products, raw materials. The Ministry of Economics decides how much, how, when to make, at what cost and to whom to sell. The initiative of business entities is completely excluded.
Implementation
Directive planning is a form of management in which targeted tasks are established and the resources necessary for their implementation are allocated. With the monopoly of state ownership, centralized planning covers all spheres of society. The main levers are:
- Investment limits.
- Budget financing.
- Government orders.
- Foundations of material and technical resources.
In the process of developing schemes, performers do not play a major role. Program developers carry out centralized supply, take on the responsibility for the logistics of achieving indicators. Moreover, often bringing developed programs is not supported by the allocation of necessary resources. In such cases, the plan becomes a burden.
Structural elements
For all the variety of forms of ownership, the Ministry of Economy often uses the components of the old management schemes in the public sector and budget financing. These elements, in particular, are included in the programs:
- Deliveries of products for federal state needs.
- Development of the public sector of the economy.
- Accepted for financing from the federal budget.
Directive planning is a management method that completely eliminates the impact of the market on the economic system. The programs under development bring to the macro level almost all microeconomic indicators. At the same time, enterprises do not have autonomy. When making decisions, the assessment of microeconomic points is excluded. The market place is occupied by the plan, prices by volume, loans by financing, commodity exchange by disaggregation and aggregation, supply and demand by balance. Directive planning is an exclusively administrative procedure. Its course is not associated with the use of cost mechanisms.
Management experience
The transition from central planning to its other forms presupposes, first of all, the elimination of conflicts of interest between executors and program developers. To successfully achieve common goals, schemes should not be presented in the form of tasks. Their development must be entrusted to direct performers. Meanwhile, the rather unsuccessful experience of previous years should not interfere with the use of directive production planning in solving national problems. It should be understood that this scheme, acting as an alternative to market self-adjustment, will not be its antipode. It is an important tool that is used not only by the state as a whole, but also by the business sector in particular.
Value
Directive planning is applied in those situations when it is necessary to solve global problems. This form of managing the national economic complex is very effective in the industrialization of the country, the formation of defense potential, the structural transformation of industrial enterprises, etc. However, it is advisable to apply centralized planning in burdensome, critical situations. For example, in the face of natural disaster, war, depression, crisis. The scope and timing of policymaking should be limited.
Alternative solution
Currently, the most widely used in the world is indicative planning. It acts as a means of implementing social and economic policies of the government, the main method of influencing the functioning of the market regime. Indicative planning contributes to the effective solution of many problems in cases. It is used when only market mechanisms without government intervention are extremely insufficient.
Circuit features
Recommended (indicative) planning is the process of forming a set of indicators through which development and the general state of the national economy are characterized. These parameters are consistent with state policy and involve certain measures of government influence on the processes. Development indicators are indicators reflecting the efficiency, structure and dynamics of the economic sphere, the state and nature of circulation of finance, the securities and goods market, the quality of life of citizens, the level of interaction with foreign trading partners, etc. An internally balanced set of these parameters allows us to obtain a quantitative assessment of state activity in the socio-economic sphere, the implementation of which are guided by state regulation measures.
Process content
The essence of indicative planning is to justify the tasks, goals, methods and directions of state policy. It acts as an effective form of interaction between all federal management institutions, both with each other and with regional representations in the interests of developing the economic sector and its individual components. The role of indicative planning is to directly indicate the areas in which the state needs to intervene in strictly defined cases. The authorities do not directly affect enterprises, but large companies are interested in cooperating with the government, because they need support in attracting foreign investment, promoting their products on world markets, etc. Indicative plans do not constrain business initiative. At the same time, they make it possible to outline a single course in managing companies, inform enterprises about potential demand, the situation in related industries, the situation on the labor market, and so on. Without planning, it is impossible to justify an investment. Designed programs have an impact on government spending. Planning allows you to organically combine socio-economic concepts, forecasts of the state of the economic sphere, a set of regulators, volumes of federal capital investments, supplies for state needs, issues of managing state-owned enterprises.
Efficiency
Indicative planning is based on priorities, under which stimulating mechanisms are formed. At the stage of transition to market relations, it acts as an objective and logical continuation and development of the forecasting process. This is due to the fact that the latter includes a lot of components. In addition to the forecast itself, the analysis process includes state programs, a set of regulators, deliveries for state needs, volumes of federal capital investments, etc. That is, the analysis procedure goes beyond the usual prediction of situations. The effectiveness of indicative plans has been proven by international practice. Particularly effective were schemes in Japan and France. Based on the government sector, they are accelerating the pace of development of the national economy.
Long term prospects
Directive and indicative planning are ideally used for a relatively short time. In the long term, strategic programs are aimed. This type of planning involves the establishment of specific goals, the formation and allocation of funds that are necessary to achieve them. In this case, the main task is to establish the correct relationship between the elements. Strategic goals relate to meeting the needs of people. Needs are influenced by both external and internal factors. With limited resources, which is typical for any country, the selection of key goals is accompanied by prioritization.
The specifics of strategic programs
The distinguishing features of this form of planning should be highlighted:
- The formation of goals of decisive importance for the national economic complex.
- Resource support for the implementation of tasks.
- Consideration of the impact of internal and external conditions.
The goal of strategic programs is to form sufficient potential for the upcoming successful development of the national economic complex. Implementation of programs is carried out for different times. Depending on the period of validity, long-term (calculated for 10 or more years), medium-term (5 years) and current (annual) schemes are distinguished. In practice, all these varieties of plans are used. This ensures the continuity of programs and the achievement of goals with different time goals.
Programming Features
In the process of transition to market relations, the planning process undergoes various changes. Its variety is programming, the tasks of which include providing solutions to key issues related to environmental, social, scientific, technical, industrial, regional and other problems. This process is necessary for the formation of an integrated approach and targeted allocation of resources. Programs can be created at any level of the hierarchy. Along with this, the developed project always acts as an address document of an indicative or directive nature.
