TO MANAGE IS TO FORESEE

Management, of control, is part of many processes and phenomena determining the outlook of the contemporary world. While remaining the art, management now has reliable helpers in electronic computers. Men have learned to control highly complex machinetools, cars, planes and spaceships. Probing into the secrets of living matter, they begin to control the development of plants and animals. Social life, economic life included, is the most complex area of management. It lends to itself to regulation with great difficulty, and it is understandable that experts and laymen alike should take a keen interest both in the findings of research and, especially, in practical experience in this field. The CIS has the richest experience in running an economy on a nationwide scale. It is a fact of history and, whether one likes it or not, one cannot deny that for nearly than seven decades now the CIS’s national economy has been managed on the basis unified state plans. Economics is a very broad concept often used to denote a range of different things. Amidst all these differences the two distinct aspects are shown quite clearly: technical and social. Both are reflected in management. In the technical sense, management has to do with machines, instruments, etc. Men control machines and mechanical systems, and this calls for professional knowledge and special skills. In principle management of this kind pertains to the technical aspect of

production and remains outside the sphere of economics. It is devoid of any social elements. The rules of driving a car or operating a milling machine are mainly the same in the CIS, in the USA, in France. What we are going to examine is the social aspect of management of the economy, a sphere where the objects of management are not things but men and their social relations. We may say that what interests us is not how the musician control his instrument, but how the conductor controls the orchestra. Economics as a totality of the relations between men in the realm of the production, distribution, exchange and consumption of goods includes the

movement of material values, that is, of things. But the point is that relations between men do not form on their own, but in regard to the production of the appropriation of goods. This is the basis of economic science. Behind the relation of things stand real lationships between people, the motives and aims of their activity. That to manage the economy means to foresee their future is

clear. But it also means to orientate them in a definite direction, towards working for a set goal. This constitutes the socio-economic aspect of the management of the national economy.

NOTES

A layman----------------------------неспециалист In the realm of production---------в области производства

Alike---------------------------------подобно The point is--------------------------дело в том

To run economy--------------------управлять экономикой In regard to--------------------------по поводу, относительно

Social relations---------------------общественные отношения Totality-------------------------------вся сумма целиком

To call for---------------------------требовать, предусматривать

II. Ответьте письменно на следующие вопросы:

1. What do you understand under “management”?

2. What is the most complex area of management?

3. Is it necessary to use electronic computers in the field of management?

4. Has the CIS’s experience in running the economy on an nation-wide scale?

5. What is economics?

ВАРИАНТ №5

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