Beyond indicative planning

The belief held by some schools of thought that planning and the preservation of democratic freedoms are antagonistic has been refuted by a number of postwar capitalist economies. Their rejection of this argument would seem to have been based less on ideological grounds than on their need to achieve a degree of social, structural and spatial balance in the distribution of resources. In contrast, meanwhile, to the imperative character of planning in the controlled economies, the State has given an indicative orientation to planning in the market economies.