Lhe term “ecological planning” has entered the current vocabulary of French politics. The reference to post-World War II planning is justified by the recognition of a common economic and social objective which surpasses all others because it is, strictly speaking, vital. Post-war reconstruction was indeed seen as the only way out of poverty and rationing, and modernization – the other objective of the plan – as the only escape from what was perceived as the collapse “Malthusian” of civilization between the wars. As today, there was a shared feeling of absolute necessity and the recognition that, despite its imperfections, the state was the adequate form of collective organization capable of guiding society and avoiding catastrophe.
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Of course, this did not mean that other forms of collective organization and individual freedom should disappear or suffer. Historians and economists will no doubt debate for a long time whether another organization and other policies would have been more beneficial to European economies after 1945, but it is clear that the reconstruction took place and that it was followed by an important process of innovation and modernization, before planning was delegitimized by the economic slump of the 1970s. The main objectives were, for the most part, quickly achieved, which cannot fail to arouse interest today, since actions decisive decisions must be made within a few years.
Within the capitalist economies, it is undoubtedly in France that planning was the most theorized and claimed, but many characteristics were shared by other countries, even if – it is obvious when we talk about State intervention – each country had its particularities and its vocabulary. Planning was based on various principles, some of which can still make sense today: development of technical skills and integration of these within the administrations, vertical (within the same sector of activity) and horizontal (between sectors of activity), European and international integration, reorganization of the financial sector in the service of planning objectives.
Consultation structures
The development of technical skills and the integration of public policies with research were major dimensions of the plan, both within administrations and public and private companies. Of the “productivity tasks” to learn foreign technologies, to the development of research departments in large nationalized companies, and the creation of fundamental research centres, everything was organized so that knowledge fed technological objectives. We must not fall into the illusion today that only technology and innovation will get us out of trouble in the face of the environmental crisis, but we can measure how much the energy renovation of buildings or the development of non-carbon energies cannot be achieved without investment in research and training, nor without restructuring the administrations.
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