Political Change in the Soviet Union
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As the world watched the events in Moscow in mid March 1990, international interest on the Soviet Union is more focused on political changes than on economic changes. Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution was revoked, thereby stripping the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of its constitutional assurance of control of the nation's government. The office of president in the Soviet Union is converted into an office resembling that in France and the United States, but with greater discretionary authority than is granted to the presi dent in either of the other two countries. As interesting as these political developments are, how ever, it should be remembered that economic reformation was the underlying impetus for all of the changes occurring in the Soviet Union. The goals of Soviet economic reformation are tied to domestic imperatives. The means of accomplshing these goals and addressing the domestic imperatives, however, involve international economic activity. This research examines the economic, social, and political changes which are occurring in the Soviet Union, with a view towards discerning the implica tions for Soviet economic policy with respect to Western Europe. 1 BACKGROUND ON SOVIET ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL CHANGE In March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) Central Committee, and Chairman of the Union of Soviet Social ist Republics (USSR) Council of Def
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ch could be achieved through labor productivity improvements alone (Galuszka, 1987).
The second stage of economic reform introduced by Gorba chev involved a loosening of central control over small 7enterprise (Naylor, 1986). To a great extent, these reforms simply provided official recognition and approval of activities which had been occurring in the country's underground economy for decades (Coplin, and O'Leary, 1986). The principal ele ments of the reforms applied to small enterprises were as follows:
1. Profits could be retained by the enterprises.
2. Prices, to a great extent, could be established by the enterprises.
3. Wage levels, where only family members were involved, could be established by the enterprises.
4. Individual workers could be discharged for ineffic iency.
5. Decisions concerning products offered or withdrawn could be made by the enterprises.
The enterprises covered by these reforms were quite small. More often than not, they employed only family members, and they were often part time, after hours endeavors. One require ment imposed by the state was that such endeavors must not impinge on the regular (officially recognized) employment of any individual.
The
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Approximate Word count = 3426
Approximate Pages = 14 (250 words per page)
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