The dominant approach to S&T policy, however, re- 

 mains fundamentally management-centered rather than 

 entrepreneur- or market-centered. V. M. Ivanchenko, 

 an official of the USSR Gosplan, expresses the pre- 

 vailing view: "It is impossible to transfer problems 

 pertaining to the acceleration of S&T progress to 

 economic levers and stimuli alone." The predilection 

 for central planning persists. The commitment to 

 central planning remains firm. Indeed, it is said, 

 "The management of technical progress needs to be 

 centralized more than any other area of economic man- 

 agement." The national economic plan proper, conclud- 

 ed the recent round table of experts, "must be the 

 main link that we must grip in order to pull the en- 

 tire research-to-production chain. "^6 



In the sphere of S&T planning, attention has fo- 

 cused largely on two needs: long-range forecasting 

 and planning geared to the ultimate utilization of 

 research results; and more integrated program-type 

 planning and effective project control. To meet the 

 first need, Soviet authorities have pressed the cam- 

 paign to extend the horizons of planning beyond the 

 prevailing short-term incremental mold in order to 

 accommodate the kind of decision making and long lead 

 times inherent in the development of science and tech- 

 nology. For all practical purposes, Soviet economic 

 planning is an annual matter. The dominant tendency 

 is to plan "from the achieved level." The expansion 

 of existing production patterns prevails over the 

 development and introduction of new products and pro- 

 cesses based upon S&T. As a result the plan for S&T 

 has remained largely "an appendage of the general 

 economic plan, an independent chapter insufficiently 

 integrated with the whole. "^7 



Significantly, in 1971 Brezhnev stressed that a 

 new approach was needed to make the macroeconomic 

 plan a powerful lever of S&T progress, to ensure the 

 rational management of both economic growth and new 

 technology. He called for the formulation of a com- 

 prehensive program for the development of science and 

 technology that could then be used as the basis upon 

 which to build a 15 year general economic development 



270 





