Chapter 8.2.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 8: Planning Organizations

8.2. Organizations related to the world planned economy

The organization responsible for formulating the World Economic Plan, which is the overall blueprint for economic planning in the world community and the starting point for sustainable economic planning, is the World Economic Planning Organization. As mentioned in Chapter 5, this organization is not a bureaucratic administrative organization, but a deliberative organization that formulates joint plans by a federated world organization of production business organizations.

As I have provided an overview of this organization in my previous article, here I will look at the organizations related to the formulation of the World Economic Plan.

It is natural that the World Economic Planning Organization will be the central practical organization for the world economic plan, but in a sustainable planned economy that places emphasis on environmental sustainability, the involvement of environmental policy organizations such as the World Environment Programme, which is involved in global environmental policy, is also essential.

The World Environment Programme is a world community organization that succeeds the current United Nations Environment Programme, and is responsible for the central practical aspects of environmental policy in the world community. Since world economic plans for a sustainable planned economy are plans that are based within the framework of environmental standards, they must conform to the policies of the World Environment Programme, and representatives of the World Environment Programme will also be involved in the formulation of the World Economic Plan as experts.

The World Environment Programme is a World Commonwealth organization that succeeds the current United Nations Environment Programme, and is responsible for the central practical aspects of environmental policy in the World Commonwealth. Since world economic plans for a sustainable planned economy are plans that are based within the framework of environmental standards, they must conform to the policies of the World Environment Programme, and representatives of the World Environment Programme will also be involved in the formulation of the world economic plan as experts.

Furthermore, the involvement of the World Natural Resources Organization is essential when formulating the energy plan, which forms the foundation of the world economic plan. In this regard, the World Economic Planning Organization and the World Natural Resources Organization will work closely together at all times as twin organizations in the formulation of the world economic plan.

In addition, the World Water Resources Organization, which coordinates the fair use of water resources, which are essential for all productive activities, will also be involved in the formulation of the world economic plan as a natural resources organization specializing in water resources.

On the other hand, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, which have strong regional characteristics, are not the direct subject of the world planned economy, but are left to the economic plans of each Zones. However, the World Food and Agriculture Organization (which also oversees fisheries and forestry) takes an expert role in formulating the world economic plan from the perspective of food supply, and in cooperation with the World Environment Programme, formulates a world agriculture, forestry and fisheries plan that serves as a supplementary guideline to the world economic plan, although it is less normative than the world economic plan, from the perspective of environmentally sustainable agriculture, forestry and fisheries.

The economic coordination councils of each of the five Grand-Zones are also involved in the formulation of the world economic plan. One of the main roles of the Grand-Zones is intra-regional economic cooperation to replace trade in a capitalist economy, and the council is the practical body for such intra-regional economic cooperation. Specifically, the secretaries-general of the economic coordination councils of each of the five Grand-Zones will be involved in the formulation of the plan by taking part in discussions and voting at the World Economic Planning Organization in an ambassador-like capacity. 

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

Chapter 8.1.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 8: Planning Organizations

8.1. Overview

A planned economy differs from a market economy in which there is no overall plan other than a business plan for each individual company. Planned economies are run over time according to an overall economic plan, and therefore require a planning organization involved in the formulation and operation of the plan. Planning organization theory explores the nature of this planning organization.

No matter what type of planned economy it is, it cannot run on the principles of planning alone unless it is supported by a rational planning organization. On the other hand, if a rational planning organization is made too complicated, it can cause problems in its operation. The planning organization in the former Soviet Union is a good example of such a lesson learned.

The Soviet Union was a unique super-large federal state made up of 15 non-sovereign republics, and as such the planning organization was split into two, one for the entire federation and one for each republic. In addition, the administrative agencies of both the federation and the republics were also involved in planning, and state-owned enterprises in each sector were involved in the front lines of planning, making it a complex system with many layers. Moreover, the Communist Party, which was the dictatorial ruling party, set the direction for the entire plan.

When formulating plans based on a basic five-year period, the Communist Party leadership's policy was the supreme command, but the numerous planning agencies each asserted their own interests and often found themselves in a competitive relationship, making the planning process unstable.

It is almost miraculous that the Soviet Union managed to run a planned economy for over half a century under such a complex and unstable planning organization and survive as a superpower to rival the United States, but it is also true that this planning organization was already on the verge of collapse before the Soviet Union was ultimately dissolved. There are various factors that contributed to this, but one may assume that planning organizations had become too complex, with a great deal of time and effort being spent on formulating plans, which hindered the smooth running of the economy. The lesson to be learned from this is that it is desirable for planning organizations to be as simple as possible. In principle, it would be good for a single planning agency to be responsible for all plan formulation, but in reality it is not possible to simplify to that extent.

In this respect, a sustainable planned economy based on a World Commonwealth is a system in which the planning organizations of each of the Zones that make up the World Commonwealth work together to formulate and implement plans, with a world institution at the core that formulates a common economic plan for the world. Moreover, since there are no political organizations such as governments or political parties, and the planning organizations are constituted as deliberative bodies of the business organizations that are the targets of the plans, the structure of the planning organization is much simpler than that of the Soviet Union.

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

Chapter 7.4.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 7: Economic Planning and Energy Supply

7.4. Planned management of energy consumption

Energy supply planning in a sustainable planned economy also affects the way end users consume energy. Naturally, consumers cannot consume as much as they want without limit, as is the case in a capitalist economy.

In particular, the consumption of electricity, which is the most important secondary energy source, is subject to a strict planned supply system, in which case there are total control methods such as planned blackouts with advance notice, and individual regulation methods such as limit systems.

Planned blackouts may be unavoidable as an emergency measure in the event of a major disaster, but adopting such a total control supply system on a daily basis is unnecessary in situations where the power supply system is well established.

Therefore, a limit system is selected, but its application method differs between general households and large consumers such as business entities. For large consumers, daily limits will be set through individual agreements with the Electric Power Organization, but for ordinary households, rather than through individual agreements, if the daily upper limit set out in the terms and conditions that are notified to them in advance is exceeded, a warning will be given in advance and the power will be automatically cut off.

In fact, in the future when a sustainable planned economy is established, it is predicted that the technological innovation that supports such strict limit systems will progress, and measuring devices that will allow end-users to accurately grasp their electricity usage in real time and that will issue warnings if the limit is approached will be widespread among ordinary households, and a strict limit system is unlikely to be as cumbersome as is currently assumed.

A similar limit system will also be introduced for gas, but a sustainable planned economy will not allow bias in the composition of energy consumption, such as all-electric or all-gas, and will take into account the balance of energy consumption. For this reason, it is desirable for electricity and gas supply to be carried out comprehensively through an integrated public business organization (the Electric Power and Gas Organization).

However, no matter how well planned this mass energy supply system is, it will not be sufficient for environmental sustainability, so the spread of energy self-sufficiency systems must also be considered. Specifically, this would include having private power generation equipment on hand at all times, and in rural communities reviving or using in combination traditional means of ignition such as wood fires.

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