ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a comparative perspective to study one dimension of the urbanization process: city finances. It focuses on the Soviet city experience as an example of planned socialism. The chapter examines the Soviet urban budget process: basic features; the Soviet urban budget process: recent developments; Soviet city revenues and expenditures in the post-World War II period; and variations in Soviet city expenditures. The Soviet urban budget process closely reflects basic characteristics of the Soviet economic system that stem from state ownership and control of resources and resource utilization. The chapter also focuses on the Soviet experience in financing cities to understand the problems that have arisen, the solutions which have been utilized, and the relevance of the Soviet case to our understanding of the contemporary urban experience. It aims to describe tax methods, expenditures categories, fiscal trends, and expenditure variations in Soviet cities, and to compare Soviet with United States city finances whenever possible.
