ABSTRACT
The political situation after the October coup dictated a more conservative approach both to intra-elite affairs and to the further evolution of the Soviet system. Inevitably, the product of the conflicting political pressures which surrounded its birth, the doctrine of developed socialism is itself a combination of conservative and reformist themes. The long-term implications of developed socialism hold forth the possibility of significant changes not only in the nature and functioning of the major political institutions but also in the larger question of the interface of the regime and society. The doctrine of developed socialism also implicitly opens the door to a proliferation of the nature and sources of demands on the institutions of party and state. The theory of developed socialism also continues to function both as an increasingly frustrated reform agenda and as an indictment of the present ills of Soviet society.
