Chapter 7.1.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 7: Economic Planning and Energy Supply

7.1. Transnational Management of Energy Sources

The fact that advanced industrial societies are based on energy as a physical foundation remains the same regardless of the mode of production. However, the ideas and methods of energy supply are closely related to the mode of production.

In capitalist industrial societies, energy is merely a means of material production activity. In other words, "production comes first," and attempts are made to supply energy commensurate with the anticipated material production activity. Moreover, these production activities are not based on an overall plan, but are competing business plans aimed at the pursuit of profits by individual capitalist enterprises, so setting limits on energy supply is avoided.

The idea of ​​a communist sustainable planned economy is the opposite. That is, "energy comes first," and production activities are carried out within the framework of an energy supply plan that takes environmental sustainability into consideration. In other words, the starting point of the economic planning process under a sustainable planned economy is energy planning.

Energy is produced from energy sources (here, this refers to energy sources in the narrow sense, i.e., primary energy sources), so the premise of a sustainable energy plan must be sustainable energy source management, that is, sustainable natural resource management.

In capitalist society, the idea of ​​"energy source management" does not even exist in the first place, and energy sources are permanently subject to development until they reach their limit of depletion, and at best development is only indirectly controlled by the governments and state-run development companies of countries with natural resource deposits.

In recent years, even such indirect control has relaxed, and resources have even become the subject of speculation. The result is economic instability due to fluctuating prices of oil and other energy sources, and the waste and depletion of resources.

A sustainable planned economy is linked to the transnational management of energy resources, which is the polar opposite of this "energy anarchy." Transnational management of energy resources means breaking away from the international common sense of "resource nationalism" that states that energy sources such as oil belong to the country that reserves them, and instead regarding energy sources as ownerless property, placing them under the joint management of all humanity.

Simply put, this means that "natural resources belong to no one." However, in order to make the transnational management of natural resources more than just an idea, but actually possible, it is necessary to build an effective joint management system that is based on the premise of a global planned economy.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.4.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: Planned economy and political system

6.4. Constituent units of the World Commonwealth

At the end of this chapter, we will summarize the outline of the planned economy system in the World Commonwealth as a whole. As already mentioned, the World Commonwealth is not a centralized single sovereign entity like a world government, but has a decentralized structure.

The basic constituent unit of the World Commonwealth is the Zone, which is a political unit equivalent to a traditional country, and is also a planned economic entity within the framework of the world economic plan. For example, the Zone of the Germany is both a political unit of Germany and a planned economic entity within the Germany domain.

At the level of these Zones, an Economic Planning Conference is established as a single economic planning organization, and economic plans within each Zone are formulated in line with the economic plan set by the World Economic Planning Organization. There is no complete hierarchical command relationship between the WEPO and the Zonal Economic Planning Conference, but the latter is like a trustee of the former.

A global planned economy not only involves planning of vertical relationships, but also economic cooperation as horizontal connections, and it is rational for such economic cooperation to be carried out on the basis of interrelated regions that bring together neighboring Zones that share geographical and cultural commonalities.

Grand-Zones are interrelated regional cooperation bodies for such neighboring Zones. Grand-Zones themselves are not planned economic entities, but mutual economic cooperation entities that supplement planned economies, and so do not have their own economic planning institutions.

There are various ways to divide Grand-Zones, but I have long proposed dividing the world into five: Pan-African-South Atlantic Zone, Pan-European-Siberian Zone, Pan-American-Caribbean Zone, Pan-Eastern Asia-Oceania Zone, and Pan-Western Asia-Indian Ocean Zone (see my article).

Such economic cooperation bodies among linked regions still exist today, but they often morph into economic competition between the regions and, in the worst cases, turn into exclusive economic blocs that can lead to international war. On the other hand, multinational capital that runs rampant globally across borders is incompatible with this kind of linked regional economic cooperation.

A Grand-Zone in a global planned economy is not a competitive unit, nor is it a sphere ​​of international industrial division like the former Comecon led by the former Soviet Union. Rather, it can be said to be a unit unique to a global planned economy that specializes in mutually complementary economic cooperation.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.3.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: Planned economy and political system

6.3. The role of the World Commonwealth

We argued that the World Commonwealth would not have a bicameral political and economic system, and that the World Economic Planning Organization would be a subordinate organ of the World Commonwealth General Assembly. If so, what role would the World Commonwealth with a unified political and economic structure play in the planned economy system?

In this respect, the former Soviet Union's administratively-command planned economy was operated as a planned economy for the single sovereign state of the Soviet Union, although it was a federation of several constituent republics, and its goal was the economic development of the the Soviet Union alone. As a result, the idea of ​​a global planned economy that transcends a single country never emerged.

In contrast, the new planned economy will be implemented on a global scale, as it is a sustainable planned economy that prioritizes the conservation of the global environment above all else. For this reason, the ultimate plan will need to be carried out in a coordinated manner at a level that encompasses the entire world. The World Commonwealth is the body that can provide such coordination.

At this point, one may ask whether it would be more effective to establish a full-fledged world government organization such as a "World Federation" in order to implement such a global planned economy. A "World Federation" is indeed a political organization that would unify the world, and there have long been movements that advocate it, primarily from the perspective of world peace.

In fact, the word commonwealth in the World Commonwealth written in English also has the political meaning of "federation,” and one existing system is the Commonwealth of Nations, an association of nation states made up of the United Kingdom and its former colonies.

However, in a new planned economy that is not based on administrative command but on voluntary joint planning by corporations, just as the framework of the nation state is unnecessary, a federal framework such as a "World Federation" is also unnecessary, and a system such as a "World Federation" does not seem appropriate as a political system that guarantees a global planned economy in a superstructure.

Commonwealth is etymologically a compound word of two words, common + wealth, and the economic implication of "world common wealth" is also recognized. The idea of ​​the World Commonwealth is envisioned as a politically and economically integrated entity involved in the planned production and distribution of this global wealth common to all of humanity.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

Chapter 6.2.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: Planned economy and political system

6.2. Political and economic bicameral system

In the relationship between planned economy and political system, the nature of the representative system becomes an issue. In this regard, in an administrative command-type planned economy like the former Soviet Union, economic planning was the task of administrative agencies, so a planning administrative agency like the former Soviet Union's State Planning Commission is sufficient, and the issue of representative system is not very important.

The issue of democratic supervision arises as to how a representative body can supervise such an administrative agency with great authority, but this is a question of administrative supervision rather than the representative system itself.

In a new planned economy centered on the autonomous joint planning of enterprises, however, the system and composition of the representative body that formulates such joint plans become important issues.

The most radical system would be to unify them into a single representative body for enterprises. For example, a representative body composed of delegates for each industry. This is a structure close to a functional representative system.

In particular, Marx's theory of communist society, based on the definition of "a society consisting of cooperatives of free and equal producers acting consciously according to a rational joint plan," would lead to a system in which production cooperatives (business entities) themselves have their own representative bodies.

According to Marx, in a communist society, (1) there would be no governing function, (2) the allocation of general functions would be a practical matter that would not result in any control, and (3) elections would lose their current political character. And under communist collective ownership, the so-called will of the people would disappear, giving way to the practical will of the cooperatives. The image is a system in which cooperatives would join together and govern directly.

However, since economic planning alone requires a great deal of deliberation and coordination, it would be more reasonable to set up a separate representative body to share the functions of deliberating other general policies. In that sense, it would be better for the economic planning body to be established and operated as a corporate representative body separate from the general representative body, and for the general representative body to only give approval to the economic plan formulated by the economic planning body.

This dual representative body of planning (economy)/general (politics) - a political and economic bicameral - would be established as a set at the level of the zones that make up the World Commonwealth However, even though it is a political and economic bicameral system, the relationship between the two will not be completely equal, and the Commons' Convention, which is the political house, will have a senate-like position, so to speak, and will hold the final power to approve plans.

The bicameral structure will not apply to economic planning body at the World Commonwealth level (World Economic Planning Organization), and it will be positioned more as one of the bodies directly under the General Assembly of the World Commonwealth (World Commons' Convention). This is because, in the case of the World Commonwealth, political integration is emphasized. However, even in this case, the World Economic Planning Organization will not be a bureaucratic body, but a deliberative body made up of the world federation of production organizations.

Furthermore, the Grand-Zones, which are wide regional entities within the World Commonwealth, will not have their own economic planning bodies, as their main task will be interregional economic cooperation within the framework of the world economic plan, rather than economic planning itself.

Chapter 6.1.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 6: Planned Economy and Political Systems

6.1. Economic Systems and Political Systems

The task of the part II of this series is to clarify the process of a sustainable planned economy, and in this chapter we will look at the political institutions that guarantee the planned economy system in the superstructure.

In general, it is not clear that there is a logically necessary relationship between economic systems and political systems. However, it is possible to find a loose, but logical, correspondence.

For example, because capitalism aims for a free economy, it is most effective when combined with a liberal political system that keeps economic regulations to a minimum, especially a parliamentary system. This is because the parliamentary system is a representative system of money politics in which large sums of money are spent on elections for public office, making it easy for capital to establish a patronage relationship in which it retains the total interest of the business community through the political parties and politicians who serve as its guarantors.

On the other hand, a socialist economic system based on an administrative command economy like that of the former Soviet Union naturally requires a government and a planned administrative agency to act as the economic command center, and is therefore linked to a fairly centralized state system. In this respect, a parliamentary system, which is a meeting point of various political parties, is difficult to fit into this system.

In contrast, the new planned economy is not an administrative command type, but is based on autonomous joint planning by the target corporations of the planned economy themselves, making planned administrative agencies unnecessary. From this point on, one issue is whether the institution of the state itself should also be unnecessary.

The key here is the abolition of the monetary system. If a state that has lost its currency authority to issue official currency is no longer a state, then a communist planned economy that is not based on a monetary economy will be incompatible with the state system.

However, the abolition of the state is not necessarily unique to planned economies, and if one takes the most radical approach to free market economics, which retains the monetary economy but abolishes the state's currency authority and purifies it into a private currency system, then at least in theory, "capitalism without the state" will be possible.

In reality, however, it is difficult to imagine that a private currency without any state authority could circulate steadily with the safety of transactions guaranteed, so "capitalism without a state" will likely remain nothing more than an armchair theory.

Ultimately, an autonomous planned economic system without a planned administrative agency will have a new political system that is not based on a state system as its superstructure, and the World Commonwealth will be the global framework for this.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface  page1

Part I: PRINCIPLES OF SUSTAINABLE PLANNED ECONOMY

Chapter 1: What is a planned economy?

 1.1. Planned economy and market economy  page2
 1.2. Planned economy and exchange economy  page3
 1.3. Marx's theory of planned economy  page4

Chapter 2: Criticism of the Soviet-style planned economy  

 2.1. Ambiguous beginning  page5

 2.2. State-planned economy  page6

 2.3. Intrinsic deficiencies  page7

 2.4. Policy deficiencies  page8

Chapter 3: The Relationship between the Environment and the Economy

 3.1. Environmental criteria and the planned economy  page8a
 3.2. Science and forecasting  page9
 3.3. Role of environmental ethics  page10
 3.4. Limitations of Classical Environmental Economics  page11
 3.5. Environment planned economy model  page12
 3.6. Dialectic between Environment and Economy  page13
 3.7. Economic Theory of Non-monetized Economy  page14

Chapter 4: Standard Principles of Planning

 4.1. Overview  page15
 4.2. Environmental Balance -part 1- : Mitigation vs. Control  page16
 4.3. Environmental Balance -part 2- : Mathematical Models   page17
 4.4. Material Balance -part1- :Supply-Demand Adjustment  page18
 4.5. Material Balance -part2- :Local production for local consumption  page19
 4.6. Material Balance -part3- :Mathematical Models  page20
 4.7. Disciplining principle of the free production domain  page21

Part II: THE PROCESS OF SUSTAINABLE ECONOMIC PLANNING

Chapter 5: Globalization of Planned Economy

 5.1. Non-bureaucratic planning  page21a
 5.2. Global Planned Economy  page22
 5.3. From trade to economic cooperation  page23
 5.4. The World Economic Planning Organization  page24
 5.5. The Council for Grand-Zonal Economic Cooperation  page25

Chapter 6: Planned Economy and Political Systems

 6.1. Economic Systems and Political Systems  page26
 6.2. Political and economic bicameral system  page27
 6.3. The role of the World Commonwealth  page28
 6.4. Constituent units of the World Commonwealth  page29

Chapter 7: Economic Planning and Energy Supply

 7.1. Transnational Management of Energy Sources  page30

To be continued.

Chapter 5.5.

Chapter 5: Globalization of Planned Economy

5.5. The Council for Grand-Zonal Economic Cooperation

Since the World Commonwealth is not an integrated entity like a single nation state, world economic planning encompasses economic coordination among the five Grand-Zones, which are the regional groupings of the Zones that constitute the World Commonwealth. Such Grand-Zonal economic cooperation is extremely important in a sustainable planned economy as an alternative to capitalist commercial trade.

In essence, a sustainable planned economy is a global economic system based on a world economic plan, in which individual Zonal planned economies and cross-Zonal economic cooperation are organically interrelated.

In that sense, Grand-Zones are important units as economic cooperation spheres, and a working organization such as the Council for Grand-Zonal Economic Cooperation must be established, separate from the World Economic Planning Organization, to handle such inter-Zonal economic cooperation and maintain constant economic cooperation relationships.

To give a specific example, in the case of automobiles, the central Zone within each Grand-Zone produces them according to the guidelines set out in the world economic plan, and they are shared within the Grand-Zone. As a result, automobile manufacturers will no longer compete with each other for global market share, and production activities will be completed within each Grand-Zone.

However, this is not a rigid rule, and in places like Africa where there are no independent automobile manufacturers - although of course the possibility of developing independent manufacturers is greater than under a capitalist economy - the existence of cooperative relationships beyond Grand-Zonal boundaries, such as sourcing from neighboring Europe, is not denied.

Another important role of the Grand-Zones will be economic cooperation in the field of food and agriculture. Communist food production is based on each Zone being self-sufficient, without relying on trade, and in reality communism makes this possible, but the state of agricultural development and production volume are also affected by geographical conditions and weather, and imbalances cannot be completely avoided, so cooperative relationships in which  Grand-Zones that share a common food culture can share scarce products are essential.

A World Food and Agriculture Organization will be established as a specialized agency to coordinate such cooperative relationships globally. This will take over the work of the current UN agency, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), but this agency will remain a coordinating body, and the actual practical aspects of cooperation will be carried out by Food and Agriculture Councils established in each Grand-Zone.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

👉The papers published on this blog are meant to expand upon my On Communism.