ABSTRACT

We noted in the first chapter that relative economic decline was one of the main factors that impelled the reform program initiated by the Soviet leadership under Gorbachev. Change of the economic mechanism is intrinsically bound up with the political system-with the way that the Soviet Union is governed-and cannot be separated from the structures that constitute the Soviet state. This is the case because in the economic system developed under and since Stalin property is owned by the state; planning encompasses the totality of economic activities-there has been relatively little “private enterprise” (an important exception has been agriculture); and the political apparatus actively intervenes in the operation of the economy to secure political objectives.