Organization of Economic Activity at Different Levels of Development

As economic processes become more and more specialized and divided, people become increasingly separated both geographically and socially — notably in their understanding of each other’s problems, needs, aspirations and priorities. It is, therefore, in the very nature of the continuous specialization and segmentation of production and distribution processes that they increase the problem of communication and, thus, the risk of failure. The ability to achieve a particular economic objective depends increasingly on the compatibility and timing of a vast number of seemingly unrelated actions carried out by a large number of people. Yet most of these people have normally no idea that they are working towards the same goal for the very simple reason that they are not even aware of each other’s existence! To complicate matters further, in the absence of coercion no objective can be achieved unless it is, first of all, accepted by those whose participation is essential for its realization.