ABSTRACT
The most important was the regime's repudiation of Nikita Khrushchev's 'subjectivism' and 'voluntarism', which implied a commitment to a more rational, pragmatic approach to policy-making. The breadth of the coalition that removed Khrushchev, which encompassed reformers, centrists and neo-Stalinists and included all the major institutional interests of the Soviet party–state, necessitated a consensus-oriented, bargained approach to policy. Leonid Brezhnev brought Khrushchev's de-Stalinisation campaign to an abrupt halt, but the rehabilitation of Stalin's reputation was largely confined to his role in the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany. In a survey of a number of case studies of Soviet policy-making, Archie Brown observes that, even under Brezhnev, the role of the General Secretary was far more extensive than that of the chief executive in most other political systems. Soviet social sciences made considerable progress during the Brezhnev era, particularly empirical sociology.
