SCOTTISH JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY JUNE 1961
| Published date | 01 June 1961 |
| Author | A. K. Cairncross |
| Date | 01 June 1961 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1961.tb00153.x |
SCOTTISH
JOURNAL
OF
POLITICAL
ECONOMY
JUNE
1961
PROGRAMMES AS INSTRUMENTS
OF
CO-ORDINATION'
I
PROGRAMMES
are an administrative device which may or may not
have an economic purpose. In a development programme the purpose
is
obviously economic, but in the world of entertainment where,
so
far as
I
know, published programmes were first used, the purpose is
almost entirely organisational.
A
concert programme,
for
example,
advertises what is to be played, by whom, in what sequence and at
what times.
It
serves both to organise the performance itself and at
the same time
as
a means
of
communication between the performers,
and the concert-going public, just as a railway time-table, which is
another kind of programme, simultaneously organises railway services
and informs the travelling, public what trains are running,
so
that they
in turn can make appropriate arrangements.
The programmes that
I
shall be discussing are rarely addressed
to
the consuming public. Some of them-for example, the development
programme
of
an under-developed country-may have the same
advertising function as a concert programme and be intended to fill
the consumer with hopes of future enjoyment. But the principal
function
of
most programmes, whether they are used by an individual
firm, by Government departments in war-time,
or
by
the
central
planning organisation
of
a Communist country,
is
to
serve as an
instrument
for
the co-ordination of productive activities.
This function is most obvious at the level of the individual firm
and in the type of programme that is the most frequently used by
firms, namely a production programme. In any large organisation
'This is an abbreviated version
of
a lecture at the Institut Universitaire
&Etudes EuropCennes, Turin, January
1961.
1
85
86
A.
K.
CAIRNCROSS
where many workers have to be assigned fresh
tasks
every day, it
becomes cumbersome to make decisions on each occasion without
reference to a plan
of
work laid down in advance. Inputs of materials
and components as well as of labour have to be adjusted to the
outputs eventually required; and the longer the interval between input
and output and the greater the variety of materials and components
incorporated
in
the finished product, the more difficult it
is
to place
orders without
a
production programme. Such
a
programme, when
drawn up, covers a fixed period of time, and shows the outputs
of
various commodities which it
is
planned to produce during that time.
This allows all operations to be phased and co-ordinated in relation
to the outputs to be produced. It also reveals any shortages
in
labour
and materials that are likely to arise and any future bottlenecks
in
capacity. For this reason it provides
a
basis for the recruitment
of
labour, and for inventory control, ordering of materials, and new
investment in additional capacity.
Production programmes illustrate the three principal characteristics
of a programme in the sense in which
I
shall use the term. First
of
all,
they are quantitative in character
:
they are statistical time series
relating to the future, not the past. The quantities, although expressed
as amounts, are in fact rates of flow over time and differ in this
respect from the quantities that normally figure in contracts-a differ-
ence that very often produces friction between those who administer
programmes and those who administer contracts. Secondly, these
quantities are usually in some sense allocative: that is, the different
rates at any point in time add up to
a
fixed total which the programme
sub-divides between competing
uses.
Thirdly, the quantities tend to
be specified in physical rather than financial terms. It would be
possible to extend the term ‘programme’ to cover similar financial
statements, but the more usual expression is
‘
budget
’.
A
budget is
a programme drawn up
by
a
consumer. At the national level,
in
a
country with a consumer rather than a producer bias, the central
budget
is
not only the spending programme of the government
but
can indeed act
as
a
substitute for
a
development programme.
There are many programmes with the characteristics that
I
have
listed. In addition to a production programme, a firm may have a
buying programme and a sales programme extending over the same,
or perhaps
a
rather different, period of time. Then it may have an
investment programme to co-ordinate capital expenditure. At the
national level there may be a host of programmes: for imports and
exports; for different raw materials; for military aircraft; investment
programmes; training programmes; and
so
on. Sometimes, to confuse
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