The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), (in French: Organisation de Coopération et de Développement Économiques; OCDE) is an international organisation of thirty countries, that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. It originated in 1948, as the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation (OEEC), led by Frenchman Robert Marjolin, to help administer the Marshall Plan, for the reconstruction of Europe, after World War II. Later, its membership was extended to non-European states and, in 1961, it was reformed into the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD by the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.