Progress without anarchy?
The non-theory-based practice of Soviet economic planning
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
Marx and Engels were convinced that an economic system without market relations would follow on from highly developed competitive capitalism. Instead of competing with each other, people would produce sensible plans for production and its distribution. Precisely because they largely followed the basic approach taken by Marx and Engels, the plans created for the overall economy by Soviet planning practitioners were neither consistent nor efficient . In the Soviet Union, instead of planned management of the economy, there was a chaotic juxtaposition of bureaucratic mechanisms, individual political demands and shadow economy practices, while attempts to form a theory of overall economic planning remained without any practical relevance.
(Osteuropa 6-8/2017, pp. 145–183)