ABSTRACT
The phase of crisis is characterized by the accumulation of ‘unsolvable problems’. What were the ‘unsolvable problems’ in the Soviet system? Some may indicate the nature of the Soviet economic system. First, the command economic system theoretically had fundamental problems as Mises and Hayek argued many years ago. Second, the economic system was practically far from efficient. Especially after the oil shock, the lack of efficiency caused a difficult problem in the realm of high technology. Others may suggest the changing nature of society. An emerging civil society, they may say, became less amenable to party control. Our argument, nonetheless, suggests that ‘unsolvable problems’ were accumulating in the political system itself. The basic features of the Soviet political system tended to face a dilemma. Let us, first of all, consider the basic dilemma of communist regimes in general. Then we will move on to the Soviet case.
