For now only that system can win which is 

 able to assure itself a vanguard position 

 in scientific and technical progress. ° 



To phrase the issue somewhat differently, the ob- 

 ject of planning has gradually shifted from primarily 

 "new technology" to "scientific and technical prog- 

 ress" more broadly. Prior to the Eighth Five Year 

 Plan (1966-1970), planning agencies operated with on- 

 ly the concept of new technology. The notion of tech- 

 nical progress was confined to theoretical social and 

 economic literature. Brezhnev himself observed in 

 1971, however, that the demands of the times required 

 a change of focus: "In an age when the role of sci- 

 ence as a direct force of production keeps growing, 

 separate scientific achievements, no matter how bril- 

 liant, are no longer the central issue. What is cen- 

 tral," the General Secretary asserted, "is a high S&T 

 level of production as a whole."" 



However, there is no consensus in the Soviet Union 

 regarding the definition of "new technology," "the 

 technical development of production," or "scientific 

 and technical progress. "10 To a large extent, disa- 

 greements about the meaning of "managing S&T progress" 

 replicates the ongoing disputes about the general con- 

 cept of "management." A semantic jungle exists in 

 both spheres. 11 In essence, the issue is how to make 

 the concept operational, how to designate the bound- 

 aries of S&T progress — its structure, content, and 

 component elements — as an object of planning. Without 

 a precise definition it is extremely hard to estab- 

 lish the place and role of the concept in the general 

 system of economic planning and management.-^ Acade- 

 mician Fedorenko admits, in regard to the prolem of 

 modeling technical progress and its economic, social, 

 and ecological consequences, "we are only at the very 

 beginning of complex and arduous research." Signifi- 

 cantly, with the Tenth Five Year Plan a new subdivi- 

 sion on basic indicators of S&T progress was added to 

 the plan for the development of science and technolor 

 gy. It represents the first attempt to define some 

 basic technical and economic parameters characteriz-. 

 ing the level of production and the manufacture of 



256 



