ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the various theoretical approaches to the analysis of state-socialist societies. The industrial society theory brings out the ways in which a common technology influences social institutions such as the educational system; but it lacks a social or class dynamic and glosses over the fact that property classes characterising capitalist society have no counterpart in state-socialist society. The social system of the Soviet Union may be described as a state-directed form of socialist modernisation. The USSR after the October Revolution was at a relatively low level of industrial development and socially undifferentiated with a large, segmentalised peasant population. Social integration is strengthened by a 'pop' culture elite, by the cult of astronauts, by the success of sportsmen and teams, by socialist rituals, such as wedding ceremonies and homage to Lenin in the Mausoleum. The politics of state-socialist societies involves struggles about the definition of goals and are also concerned with the putting into effect of these goals.
