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The main theme of this study is to analyze the Soviet economic theoretical debate in the period 1985 – 1991. This period of reconstruction gave possibilities of a more free debate. In the period up to 1989/90 the directive from the Central Committee of the Communist Party was to defend the socialist economic system and its supremacy over market economics. However, certain market economic ideas were deemed as functioning methods also in a planned economic system. One of the conclusions in this thesis is that the Soviet economists failed to solve some central theoretical problems in the Soviet economy and as consequence their thinking failed to have a stabilizing effect on the socialist economic theory. The Achilles heel was how to apply the labour theory of value on a planned economy. In 1990 and 1991 the discussion was very free and now a transition to market economy was accepted by the economists. The main issue between the Soviet economists became now whether a gradual transition to market economy was to be preferred to shock therapy. The majority of the economists recommended a gradual transition. Scholars have emphasized that old stationary structures are important in Russian and Soviet history. A conclusion in this thesis is that such structures seemed to have played a role in Soviet and Russian theoretical thinking in the period 1985 – 1991.

Why should a legal scholar be interested in development plans? The present work begins and evolves with such question in mind. In order to provide an answer, the research focuses on certain major epiphanies of modern development planning and tries to isolate their legal characters. Therefore, the first issue to be addressed is the identification of “legal models” of development planning. The legal nature and legal effects of planning acts is still not clear and moves along fuzzy borders between traditional categories of mid-twentieth century planning (socialist and nonsocialist) and modern soft law planning documents and guidelines. In the first place, the research will try to assess the notion of planning in a legal perspective as well as the legal features of the planning acts/planning norms. The objective of this phase is to decide whether or not, and to which extent, socio-economic development planning may be thought of legally. In order to do so, I will carry out an analysis from the perspective of legal anthropology. In the second place, the research will focus on the definition of the legal features of modern development planning in the People’s Republic of China, through the analysis of the relevant legal formants, with the purpose of determining whether or not the identification of a Chinese “development planning law” is logically feasible. In the third place, I will question and verify the existence of development planning acts and norms in European Law. The purpose of the phase is on one hand to reconstruct and define the legal value of the regulatory framework for the functioning of European development policies. On the other hand, at this stage certain categories and practical solutions verified on the “Chinese front” may be applied to the European context. In the fourth place, i.e. in the conclusive chapter, I will try to draw some results of the comparative analysis carried out, as well as to trace an evolutionary pattern, determining how legal models of development planning affect, on a global scale, the changes in the role of the state in its relationship with the market.