ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev sees his program of perestroyka as seriously jeopardized by outbreaks of popular unrest, ethnic clashes, and separatist movements that are occurring in every corner of the inner Soviet empire. The once despised notion of federalism is becoming increasingly popular among Soviet leaders. Political debates, parliamentary hearings, scholarly literature, newspaper articles, and interviews in the mass media exhaustively discuss the Union's shortcomings, the prospects of federalism, and the specific approaches to reviving the Soviet federation and staving off its collapse. Gorbachev has presented a package of measures specifically designed to consolidate the political and economic independence of the republics and thus to reinforce the federation. Federation, "loose federation", and confederation are the models most discussed, the first being mainly proposed by the Soviet leadership, the latter two by popular fronts in the Transcaucasus, Moldavia, and Ukraine. If properly implemented, economic self-management by the republics and regions could have a profound impact on the structure of the Soviet state.
