In the USSR, too, the present tends to drive out the 

 future. 



Steps have been taken in recent years to broaden 

 the vision of Soviet S&T planners. The five year plan 

 has indeed resumed importance as authorities have put 

 increased stress on careful and comprehensive formu- 

 lation of goals over longer periods to concentrate 

 resources better on priority projects and provide 

 greater direction and control over the nation 's R&D 

 effort. A fifteen-year program has also been drafted 

 for the development of science and technology for the 

 period 1976 to 1990. This program is designed to 

 serve as the organizing framework for a broad 15-year 

 development plan for the economy as a whole. This 

 general macroeconomic plan has not yet appeared, how- 

 ever, testifying to the continuing difficulties that 

 beset the drafting of feasible long-range Soviet plans, 

 The framers of the S&T program, moreover, have also 

 been ordered to rework their forecasts. Obviously, 

 the proper formula, political and analytical, has not 

 yet been found for striking a balance between present 

 interests and future needs. 



By and large, then, the science and technology en- 

 terprises in both the US and USSR run on momentum and 

 incrementalism. With tight constraints on zero-based 

 budgeting and programming and a short time horizon, 

 these tendencies cause both systems to remain input- 

 oriented rather than output-oriented. 



The Soviet system is particularly incremental. The 

 tendency to plan from the achieved level reflects an 

 "add on" approach to design that encourages scaling 

 up existing processes rather than developing new ones 

 and sees continuity as the best guarantee of meeting 

 planned output goals. The S&T plans themselves en- 

 dorse incrementalism. These plans, once approved, 

 carry the force of law; there is little flexibility 

 between planning periods and the cumbersome process 

 of revising plans produces rigidity and little oppor- 

 tunity for quick remedial action within the periods. 

 The plans are most rigid at the higher levels, with 



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