ABSTRACT
The apparent difference between the approaches rests on assumptions about the locus of decision-making power and the motives that might reasonably be attributed to the relevant decision makers. For policymakers concerned with the Soviet strategic threat, knowledge of the operations of the Soviet defense decision-making environment can hardly be regarded as an end in itself. Pluralistic interpretations are based on the notion that relevant decision-making power may be effectively shared by organizations and individuals the top political level. A pluralistic interpretation would appear to generally deemphasize it. Soviet decisions that can be plausibly explained on pluralistic grounds may reflect the operation of the action-reaction phenomenon in a more genuine way than one would at first suspect. A pluralistic approach seems particularly congenial to reflecting the impact of the technological imperative because it is at the lower levels of the defense establishment hierarchy that the greatest sensitivity to new technological possibilities is likely to be found.
