sion makers to formulate comprehensive and coherent 

 policies. Accordingly, interest is increasing of 

 late in developing and applying the modern tools of 

 systems planning and management and more sophistica- 

 ted decision aids in this area. Indeed, "systems 

 analysis" and "the systems approach" have become fa- 

 vorite terms as the regime seeks to build a more ef- 

 fective conceptual framework for R&D problem-solving. 



These underlying aspects of S&T planning are im- 

 portant to note at the outset, because the formal 

 structure and procedures of planning tend to dominate 

 Soviet discussions of science policy and sometimes 

 overshadow these dimensions, which not only impact 

 upon the structure but, more importantly, influence 

 appreciably the quality of R&D decision making. 



RESOURCE PLANNING AND ALLOCATION 

 FOR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 



In a centrally planned economy like that of the 

 Soviet Union, control over real resources, and not 

 merely the availability of funds, is the essential 

 prerequisite for the conduct of R&D. 1 ^ In other 

 words, work undertaken at the initiative of the per- 

 forming or sponsoring organization depends in large 

 part upon whether the activity itself and the expec- 

 ted capital, labor, and material inputs are each ac- 

 counted for in respective plan chapters. Ruble val- 

 ues serve as the principal means of measuring and ag- 

 gregating performance, but in most cases it is not 

 possible to bid resources away from other organiza- 

 tions as a means of expanding the scope of work. At 

 the least, then, funding serves as an essential if 

 passive indicator of the magnitudes of various cate- 

 gories of R&D. Whether funding can serve as an ac- 

 tive control mechanism, furnishing command over real 

 resources, is a function of the level of aggregation 

 of the decision, the specific fund and/or organiza- 

 tion involved, and the priority and nature of the re- 

 search. 



92 



