ABSTRACT
The main substantive problem with the Soviet emphasis on common human values was that it failed to address those values that are not common. It provided, as a result, little evidence as to how the Soviet Union would view future clashes of interest between itself and other states. The domestic pluralism and sensitivity to outside views-have broadened the ranks of those with a say in defining legitimate and viable Soviet purposes. In contemporary Soviet analyses, the national interest is constantly changing, just as Eduard Shevardnadze suggested—and the revisions are all in one direction: downward. Mikhail Gorbachev has often quoted Palmerston's dictum that a state can have neither permanent friends nor permanent enemies, only permanent interests—meaning, of course, that Soviet interests are not really different from those of any normal state. The crucial event in the reform of Soviet policy-making was Gorbachev's decision to beef up the powers of the legislature and—even more—to choose its members in elections.
