ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the implementation of regional policy and evaluates its results. In American research on the implementation of policy and its assessment three important concepts are distinguished: input, output, and outcome. The input to a political program is the various types of resources, personnel as well as material. Output refers to the decisions taken on actions to be implemented. Outcome describes the actual changes that have occurred as a result of output. Western research on Soviet regional development reviewed in the chapter on regional differences was based mainly on 1960 and 1970 data. The centralized Soviet planning system creates means to distribute resources among the regions in a way that the political leadership deems fitting. The results of Soviet regional policy will be more easily discernible from a closer examination of the Central Asian and Siberian macroregions. The location criteria for Soviet industry reflect important aspects of the goals of Soviet regional policy.
