ABSTRACT
The problem Mikhail Gorbachev has inherited from his predecessors is that the CPSU is clearly inadequate to the "titanic task" of restructuring Soviet society. In the long run, Gorbachev's program of perestroika, if successful, threatens to undermine the dominant position of the party by depriving it of its functions in the management of the economy and its monopoly in the political arena. While affirming the principle of the political supremacy of the CPSU, Gorbachev has also made it clear that the party is in serious need of restructuring and that the present relationship between the party and the state is due for a major overhaul. The basic problem, according to Gorbachev, is the excessive concentration of political power in the hands of the party bureaucrats. The relationship between the party, in particular its professional apparatus, and the administrative institutions of the state has always been a key problem in Soviet politics.
