ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates the difficulties of organizational reform at the local level, and examines how the Soviets are dealing with the problem. It addresses the nature of organizational conservatism by examining local agricultural reforms in the period 1982–1989. The chapter argues that the results desired in the perestroika of agriculture, which the leadership has attempted to achieve by tampering with the management structure, can be attained only slowly because of organizational conservatism. It also addresses the elements of reform policy which rely on decentralized management and leasing arrangements, thereby demonstrating the gradual transition in agricultural management that has occurred during the eighties. The Russian acronym for raion agro-industrial association (RAPO) was formed to deal with a chronic problem in agricultural management. The RAPO program was an attempt to rationalize the management structure by removing organizational obstacles which had stood in the way of natural vertical linkages in the food production process.
