Chapter 8.3

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 8: Planning Organizations

8.3. Organizations related to the Zonal planned economy

The forefront of a sustainable planned economy are the Zones, which are the constituent entities of the World Commonwealth. Each Zone is usually single and is also the economic planning entity that formulates and operates its own economic plan within the framework of the world economic plan.

However, small Zones often do not have the economic base to operate a planned economy on their own. Therefore, these small Zones form unions with neighboring Zones of the same size or larger Zones, and operate a planned economy in the unit of a Joint- Zone. The main role of the Joint-Zone is to operate such a common economic plan.

These Zonal economic plans are formulated based on the Grand-Zone in the world economic plan, taking into consideration economic cooperation within the the Grand-Zone, and the practical aspects of such Grand-Zonal economic cooperation are handled by the economic cooperation councils of the five Grand-Zone. The councils are composed of representatives of production enterprises that are responsible for the fields of economic cooperation within the Grand-Zone, and after concluding a Grand-Zonal economic cooperation agreement, they obtain approval and resolution from the Grand-Zonal the Commons' Convention.

Following the Grand-Zonal economic cooperation agreement, the process moves on to the formulation of economic plans for each Zone. Whether single or joint, the body that formulates the Zonal economic plan is the Economic Planning Conference. This is not an administrative body like the State Planning Commission, which was the central body of the planned economy in the former Soviet Union, but a deliberative body jointly run by the production enterprises that are the subject of the planned economy.

It is structured as a conference body whose members are the planning officers of each production enterprise, and it has an attached secretariat that provides practical support for the conference. The conference is a tripartite system in which the general industry committee, agriculture, forestry, fisheries committee, and pharmaceutical committe are branched out in accordance with the three types of plans: general, agriculture-forestry-fisheries, and pharmaceutical, and representative departments of consumer business organizations in the Provincial Areas or Quasi-Zones, which are the units for formulating consumption plans, are also established as observer committees.

Of the three committees, the general industry committee is divided into special subcommittees that roughly follow the industrial classification of the input-output table that forms the basis of economic plans, and each subcommittee formulates its own plan after discussion. The agriculture, forestry and fisheries committee is also divided into special subcommittees, but the pharmaceutical committee itself doubles as a special subcommittee.

Regarding the energy plan, which is a prerequisite for the economic plan, the Energy Planning Council, made up of energy-related businesses such as oil refineries and electricity, is established as a subordinate organ of the Economic Planning Conference, and the Economic Planning Conference deliberates and passes on the energy plan proposed by the Council.

On the other hand, the Commons' Convention, which is involved in the administration of the Zone, is also involved in the formulation of the economic plan, but it does not take the lead. The role of the Commons' Convention is to re-deliberate and approve the plans passed by the Economic Planning Conference. In that respect, the relationship between the Commons' Convention and the Economic Planning Conference can be said to be equivalent to that of a sort of upper house (≒ the Commons' Convention) and lower house (≒ the Economic Planning Conference). However, the Commons' Convention cannot completely reject a plan, it can only partially disapprove or send it back.

In the case of economic planning at the Joint-Zonal base, a Commons' Convention is not established in the joint territorial area, but instead the Policy Coordination Council has the right to approve the plan. To this extent, the Policy Coordination Council plays a role equivalent to the Commons' Convention in a single Zone.

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

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.

Chapter 7.3.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 7: Economic Planning and Energy Supply

7.3. Energy Business Entities

The nature of the energy business entity responsible for energy production and supply to households, corporations, and other energy consumers is not unrelated to the mode of production in general, but it does not necessarily have an inevitable relationship with it.

In other words, even in the capitalist mode of production, due to the policy of public ownership of natural resources, energy enterprises often take the form of public enterprises such as state-owned enterprises (especially resource enterprises such as oil companies), and although they are stock companies, they sometimes take the form of officially recognized monopolies that are guaranteed the privileges of a monopoly by the state. The state has also taken the form of a recognized monopoly.

However, recent so-called neo-liberal ideology extends to the liberalization of energy production and supply, and in particular, there is a growing trend toward privatization and competition in the electric power industry.

In contrast, energy enterprises in a sustainable planned economy, where supply planning is based on transnational management of energy, are based on socially owned public enterprises. Specifically, it will take the form of a production business organization, which will be discussed later.

For example, in the case of electricity, it is the Electric Power Organization. Such an entity will not be divided by region, but will be established as a unified entity on an all-Zonal basis. However, regional offices will be established in each of the several regional jurisdictions to ensure a certain degree of decentralized management.

In addition, primary energy sources such as oil to be managed by the private sector will not be imported commercially, but will be planned and supplied according to the supply quotas of each Zone, so an entity that will serve as a unified receiving window is necessary.

In this regard, as an entity under the direct control of the Energy Planning Council, which is a subordinate body of the Economic Planning Conference and consists of energy business entities, the Natural Resource Liaison Organization, which will serve as a comprehensive receiving window for supplied resources, will be established  and will be in charge of everything from the negotiation of supply quotas to marine transportation. The Energy Planning Council will be in charge of the secondary supply of the received resources within the Zone.

A sustainable planned economy that does not use nuclear power generation also includes the historic and time-consuming energy disposal process of phasing out nuclear power generation. Such a nuclear phase-out plan will be implemented on a global scale, and for the time being, a specialized entity such as the Nuclear Phase-Out Organization will be established separately from the Electric Power Organization in the Zone.

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

Chapter 7.2.

👉The table of contents so far is here.

Chapter 7: Economic Planning and Energy Supply

7.2. Energy supply planning

In the previous section, we pointed out that the starting point of the economic planning process under a communist planned economy is the energy plan. Let us now look back at the principles of a sustainable planned economy described in Chapter 4.

A sustainable planned economy already includes environmental assessment, and therefore must be combined with not only a "material balance" aimed at adjusting the quantity of production, but also a qualitative "environmental balance" that includes the selection of energy resources that are compatible with environmental sustainability and the regulation of production methods and product structure.

In particular, an energy plan is necessary as a prerequisite for this "environmental balance." In that case, there is a technical problem of whether to separate the energy plan from the main economic plan and incorporate it independently, or to incorporate it as a prerequisite part of the economic plan.

The integrated type seems appropriate in order to emphasize that the energy plan is not an external regulation of the economic plan, but an internal premise for the entire economic plan; however, in any case, such an energy plan is a guideline that is applied to production companies with the same normative power as the economic plan itself, and is not simply a programmatic set out of the basic principles of energy policy.

Furthermore, because energy supply is closely related to the system of global joint management of energy sources, it must also be linked to energy resource management plans at the global level, and a "single-nation energy plan" cannot exist here.

In terms of content, the plan is based on the conservation of non-renewable energy sources such as oil and the active use of renewable energy, with environmentally sustainable total quantity restrictions on electricity, which accounts for the largest proportion of all secondary energy sources in advanced industrial society, being an important pillar of the energy plan.

Incidentally, with regard to power generation, nuclear power has been proven to be unparalleled in its environmental destruction in the event of an accident, so it cannot be evaluated as a qualitatively safe and sustainable energy source, and is therefore excluded from the sustainable energy plan.

The body that formulates such energy plans is also not a government agency, but the Economic Planning Conference, which is made up of production companies, but the original energy plan is formulated by the Energy Planning Council, a subordinate organ of the council made up of energy-related business entities such as oil refining and electricity.

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

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.