ABSTRACT
This chapter is concerned with the inter-relationship between social policy and the political economy of the Soviet Union. It is an examination both of the constraints and opportunities through which the political and economic system affects social policy and of the influences of social policy on that system in its professed attempt to industrialise and create a fully socialist, that is, communist, society. The political determination of priorities occurs at the top of the hierarchy of power in the central committee of the party. The chapter discusses the nature of the political economy and of social policy. The dominant ideology of the Soviet Union is maximum feasible egalitarianism in social policy and minimum feasible inegalitarianism in earnings from work. Payment according to work is seen as necessary at this stage of the country’s economic and cultural development. The history of the Soviet Union suggests that the ruling elite acts neither in totally unselfish or selfish ways.
