An Institutionalist Theory of Economic Planning

Abstract

Economic theory in the West, the standard kind taught to millions of unsuspecting college students, has little to do with economic reality. So, it is no coincidence that the broader need of society for democratic economic planning is not being discussed in the polity. Corporations are planning instruments. They are tools in the form of social organizations. They are designed to yield money for those who control them. Communist economic planning, more precisely, the Western caricature of communist planning, has become the bogeyman of planning. Institutionalists do not advocate communist economic planning. But it must be understood for what it is—one of several types of planning. In fact, communist planning itself comes in different forms. Democratic planning is the planning recommended by institutionalists. As in communist and corporate planning, planning is intended to replace the market. But the similarities end there. Democratic planning is a process; it is not a blueprint. It is a means, not an end.