Economic planning

Economic planning deliberately coordinates production, investment, and resource allocation across an economy, usually through public authorities. It ranges from binding state directives to indicative plans that guide private decisions.

Central planning: An economic system in which a central authority sets major production and allocation decisions. It is the most directive form of economy-wide planning.
War economy: An economy reorganized to prioritize military production and supply during war. Wartime controls demonstrated how governments could redirect production at national scale.
Market economy: An economic system in which decentralized exchange and prices guide most production and allocation. It contrasts with plans that set production priorities administratively.
Industrialization: The expansion of manufacturing and machine-based production within an economy. Plans have often concentrated investment to accelerate industrial growth.
Soviet Gosplan: The Soviet state committee responsible for coordinating national economic plans. It embodied the administrative machinery behind comprehensive Soviet targets.
Indicative planning: A planning approach that publishes targets and forecasts to guide firms without binding their decisions. It coordinates expectations while leaving most production choices to private actors.
Soviet Union: A socialist state that governed much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. Its successive five-year plans became the best-known model of comprehensive planning.
Mixed economy: An economic system combining private markets with public ownership, regulation, or direction. It shows how planning can coexist with extensive market coordination.
Collectivization: The consolidation of individual farms or enterprises into collectively controlled units. It illustrates how a plan can transform ownership as well as production targets.
Great Leap Forward: A Chinese campaign from 1958 to 1962 that sought rapid industrialization and agricultural transformation. Its targets and coercive implementation show the dangers of distorted planning information.

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