ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the existing planning and administrative bodies, and how decisionmaking powers are distributed among the various bodies and administrative levels. It also examines how decisions are made and implemented in regional policy. The chapter concentrates mainly on the 1980s, with but one historical digression, to the Sovnarkhoz reform. It focuses on the bodies of most relevance for regional policy, in particular those at the central (union) and regional (republic) levels. A peculiarity of the Soviet administrative structure is its dual organization. The most important decisions on regional development are unquestionably made at the central or union level, where decisions on political and economic matters are made for all important areas of Soviet society. A major aim in establishing territorial production complexes (TPCs) was to enable economic activity to proceed without the administrative obstructions experienced under the sectoral and ministerial system. An examination of the administrative apparatus reveals a similar conflict of interests between sectoral and territorial planning.
