economic planning or centralized planning is an attempt or a project to rationalize the economic affairs of a country, with the aim of achieving the best possible coordination and efficiency, to satisfy the needs of citizens.[1]​.

The demands in terms of information (ideally, the planner should know everything) and control (once the plan is established, it should be followed and applied by all actors), correspond especially to centralized approaches, whether they are Jacobin orientations or "French-style" collectivist socialist orientations.

The method, initially industrial and military, spread to the entire society towards the middle of the century. At the time, the "very noticeable" advantages in terms of coordination and also reduction of "waste" and conflicts led one to think that the liberal model would be surpassed in favor of a dirigiste model.

But reality quickly showed different results from the conceptual ideal, probably due to the following shortcomings:

Due to what has been stated, economic planning has practically been left aside in political thought at the present time. The political planning bodies that until not long ago were at the top of the administrative hierarchy, in France (ex-Commissariat général du Plan")) as well as in the USSR"), are currently structures oriented towards prospective studies. Planning continues to exist, but at more modest levels, less ambitious, more short-term, and more consistent with available capacities.