Planification et gestion au niveau de la branche industrielle en Europe de l'Est

In: Revue de l'est: économie, planification et organisation : etudes comparatives est-ouest, Volume 1, Issue 1, p. 49-86

Abstract

Planning and management on the Branch Level in the East European Industry.
The article consists of three parts. The first discusses different models of industrial association which exist in Eastern Europe. Here three types are distinguished : a) the industrial association as a government office — a universal form in East Europe until the late' 50-s, b) the industrial association as a quasi — business corporation — characteristic presently in contries such as the U.R.S.S., Poland and the G.D.R., and c) the industrial association as an association of independent enterprises — existing presently only in Hungary. A discussion concerning the diversity and relative merits and disadvantages of the different types of industrial association follows the general description.
In Part 2, long and short term planning at the branch level is discussed. Both the actual planning practice of administrative iteration and efforts to use mathematical programming at the branch level are analysed.
The final section is devoted to an analysis of the management mechanism at the branch level. The respective role of direct administrative orders and economic instruments is discussed (the latter is treated in some details).
Throughout the article, the intimate relationship between the type of economic reform aimed at and the type of industrial organization chosen (industrial association versus enterprises as main plan executants) is stressed. The changing role of branch planning and management models of industrial associations is analysed and illustrated by examples drawn from Polish, G.D.R., Bulgarian, Czechoslovak and Hungarian practice.