<Ul> <Li> Socialism portal </Li> <Li> Economics portal </Li> <Li> Politics portal </Li> </Ul> <Tr> <Td> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> </Td> </Tr> <Ul> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> <Li> </Li> </Ul> <P> Different forms of economic planning have been featured in various models of socialism . These range from decentralized - planning systems, which are based on collective decision - making and disaggregated information, to centralized systems of planning conducted by technical experts who use aggregated information to formulate plans of production . In a fully developed socialist economy, engineers and technical specialists, overseen or appointed in a democratic manner, would coordinate the economy in terms of physical units without any need or use for financial - based calculation . The economy of the Soviet Union never reached this stage of development, so planned its economy in financial terms throughout the duration of its existence . Nonetheless, a number of alternative metrics were developed for assessing the performance of non-financial economies in terms of physical output (i.e.: net material product versus gross domestic product). </P>

Explain the salient features and stages in the process of economic planning