David Dyker argues that the current chaos can only be understood in the context of the failure of fifty years of central planning. He analyses this and some of the new problems on the way to assessing whether the reforms will succeed.

1. The Historical Origins of the Soviet Planning System 2. Soviet Planning in Practice 3. The Reforms of the 1960s and why they Failed 4. Gorbachev's Perestroika Programme 5. The Special Problem of Agriculture 6. The Special Problem of Contruction and Investment 7. Perestroika in Crisis