s (see ch.
8).

The organizational structure of the economy has undergone frequent
changes in efforts to resolve economic problems by administrative means.
Officially, the reorganizations have been declared necessary to keep
economic management abreast of the requirements of socialist economic
development. The frequency of the changes, however, and a lack of
clarity in many of the directives have brought about a blurring of
jurisdictional lines with consequent overlapping of functions and
conflicts of authority. The organizational problem has been compounded
by the contradictory nature of the motives that have prompted the
reforms--to grant more discretionary power to enterprise managers and,
at the same time, to strengthen central controls by enhancing the
directing role of the compulsory economic plans. In 1971 economic
officials considered important aspects of the economic organization to
be still in an experimental stage.

STRUCTURE AND GROWTH

Data on gross output and national income in absolute terms have not been
published. Official statistics on these social accounts have been
limited to a few index series for overall, productive sector, and per
capita values and a percentage breakdown of gross output and national
income by productive sector. The arbitrary nature of the pricing system
and differences in statistical treatment compared to Western practice
preclude a direct comparison of the published growth rates of the
economy and its components with similar rates in Western countries. The
same holds true for comparisons of economic structure. Independent
studies of the economy by Western scholars in Western statistical terms
yielded significantly lower rates of growth and a different structure of
economic activities from those officially announced.

According to official data, national income (net material product, which
excludes private and government services not directly related to
production) more than doubled between 1960 and 1970, and industrial
output more than tripled. Agricultural production, by contrast,
increased by less than one-third. The rates of economic and industrial
growth, even when translated into Western terms, have been relatively
high and among the highest in countries of Eastern Europe. Such high
growth rates have usually been associated with early stages of
industrial development. The high growth rates were made possible by an
official policy that allocated more than 30 percent of