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 Article 6 of the Soviet Constitution was revoked, thereby stripping the Communist Party of the Soviet Union of its constitutional assurance of control of the nation's government.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 Defense. He was, at that time, already a member of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. In the five years that he has been the nation's leader, he has introduced far reaching social, political, and economic initia tives.
In examining the contemporary developments in the Soviet Union, several factors must be considered. First, the economic initiatives of Gorbachev are not unprecedented in socialist states generally, nor in the Soviet Union in particular. The New Economic Policy ...