Erwin Anton Gutkind - Creative demobilisation

The International Library of Sociology

Founded by KARL MANNHEIM

The International Library of Sociology

Reprinted 1998, 1999, 2002
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group

1943 E. A. Gutkind

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Creative Demobilisation Part I: Principles of National Planning
ISBN 0-415-17714-6
Public Policy, Welfare and Social Work: 18 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17831-2
The International Library of Sociology: 274 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-17838-X

Publisher's Note
The publisher has gone to great lengths to ensure the quality of this reprint but points out that some imperfections in the original may be apparent

DEMOCRACY against totalitarianism ; freedom from want against want of freedom ; world-wide co-operation against domination by regimentation and suppression : such are the issues of the present struggle as they are generally defined. But beneath them there are forces at work which are common to all countries and which have thrown both opposing camps into the present turmoil. These forces arise out of a sense of values which differs from that of past generations. In this process of revaluation, the shrinking of the world is a factor of primary importance. Spiritual and material intercourse is increasing in time and space on an unprecedented scale. The outcome of this forces us to face the problem of a world administered as one coherent unit and to make the best use of the resources which Nature and Man have put at our disposal. We are witnessing to-day the birth-pangs of a new era. We must adapt ourselves to a new outlook and to a new mode of living which ask for the utmost courage, vision and rationality in our thoughts and actions. Our task is immense, not only in its vastness and complexity, but in its uniqueness. It is the first time in history that the social and economic fabric of the whole of mankind has been in a state of transformation at the same time and with the same goal. No country can live in isolation, and every change in the structure of one country has its inevitable reactions on the rest of the world. Every country has not only a duty towards itself but towards the world. Domestic reconstruction is the fundamental counterpart of international co-operation, and vice versa.

Planning on a national scale must be conceived, therefore, as an essential part of these wider issues. The post-war world which Great Britain wants to build up at home is but a fraction of the problem which confronts the post-war world. It would be presumptuous to claim that one person or even a group of selected persons could contribute towards the solution of these problems more than modest suggestions in one field or another. This book is certainly no exception ; and I am sure of the support of the various authors who co-operated by writing the memoranda of the second part when I add that they realise the limitations of this study in view of the multitude of problems involved in National and World Planning. But the general tendency of the book is dictated by the recognition of the worldwide interdependence of social and economic forces. The problems which have been dealt with and the suggestions which have been worked out with special regard to Great Britain will have relevance for other countries.

To supply the starved countries of Europe and Asia with food and clothes and shelter after the armistice and to prepare a smooth-running organisation for this purpose now, during the war, is certainly essential. First things first. But this immediate necessity must not blind us to the imperative need of laying the foundations of a long-term policy now, during the war, and so lifting post-war reconstruction out of the sphere of generalities and trivialities. Thus, National Planning must steer clear of the Scylla of a too short-term approach and of the Charybdis of high-sounding but empty generalities behind which vested interests of all brands can conveniently hide, hoping to start again where we left off in 1939.

The book attempts to lay down principles of planning on a national scale. It is not concerned with the working out of details which belong rather to the sphere of regional and local planning. But these latter could not produce the desired results without the framework of a master plan. National planning is a new discipline, and has been practised hitherto only in Soviet Russia and to some degree in the U.S.A. The reports of the National Resources Committee are of outstanding value, and it is for this reason that ample use has been made of them in the form of quotations or by summarising such of their findings which have a special bearing on problems of national planning. It might also be appropriate to explain the relatively large number of quotations from other sources ; the main reason is that the literature of national planning is very widely scattered and is not generally well known. I deemed it important, therefore, to supply the reader with as much first-hand knowledge of the views and experience of other countries as possible.