Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T16:53:27.377Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Political Economy of the Brezhnev Era: The Rise and Fall of Corporatism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2009

Valerie Bunce
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

When Leonid Brezhnev came to power in 1964, the Soviet empire consisted of Cuba and six reliable satellites in Eastern Europe, the bloc was dominated politically and economically by the Soviet Union, and East–West interactions were kept to a minimum. Soviet military capabilities at this time, moreover, were clearly inferior to the military power of the West. And while East–West relations were testy, they had improved in the aftermath of the Partial Test Ban Treaty of 1963.

Type
Articles
Information
British Journal of Political Science , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 129 - 158
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Détente After Brezhnev (Berkeley, California: Institute of International Studies, 1977), p. 77.Google Scholar

2 These figures are drawn from World Economic Outlook (Washington, D.C.: The International Monetary Fund, 1981), p. 115Google Scholar and ‘Soviets may seek new loans’, New York Times, 8 01 1982.Google Scholar

3 Bunce, Valerie and Echols, John, ‘Soviet Politics in the Brezhnev Era: Pluralism or Corporatism?’ in Kelley, Donald, ed., Soviet Politics in the Brezhnev Era (New York: Praeger, 1980), pp. 1–26.Google Scholar

4 A similar line of argument has been taken by Nove, Alec, ‘Socialism, Centralized Planning, and the One Party State’ in Rigby, T. H., Brown, Archie and Reddaway, Peter, eds, Authority, Power and Policy in the USSR (New York: St Martin's Press, 1980), pp. 77–97.Google Scholar

5 See Dallin, Alexander and Breslauer, George, ‘Political Terror in the Post-Mobilization Stage’, in Johnson, Chalmers, ed., Change in Communist Systems (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1970), pp. 191–215.Google Scholar A summary of Soviet thinking on the sources of higher productivity can be found in Kukushkin, M., ed., Razvitoi Sotsializm i proizvodstvo material-'nykh blag (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1975)Google Scholar; Logvinov, L. D., ‘Obespechenie vysokoi effektivnosti obshchestvennogo proizvodstva-zadachi ekonomicheskoi politiki KPSS’ in Voprosy ekono-micheskoi politiki KPSS na sovremennom etape (Moscow: Politizdat, 1971), pp. 179–90.Google Scholar

6 Breslauer, George, ‘Khrushchev Revisited’, Problems of Communism, xxv (1976), 18–33Google Scholar; and Bunce, Valerie, Do New Leaders Make a Difference? (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1981), Chap. 6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

7 Corporatism is a term which refers to a type of interest intermediation process and therefore to certain policy outcomes. In corporatism, as opposed to pluralism and syndicalism, there is an activist state, concerned with social consensus and growth through a consensual planning process. Towards this end, the state incorporates functionally-based groups, such as labour and those who manage capital, into the economic decision-making process. The by-products of such a system include an expanding welfare state which co-opts the support of labour, investment priorities palatable to capital, and social harmony. Thus, corporatism is a broad, highly generalized descriptive term for political economies that share the following traits: (1) a concern with growth, consensual decision processes, and the nature of policy outcomes rather than (as in the case of pluralist systems) policy processes; (2) centralization of power in the executive, economic planning, and highly-articulated bureaucratic structures; (3) a state actively involved in the creation of hierarchically-organized, functionally-based interests and the admission of these interests into the policy process; (4) a form of interest intermediation that emphasizes on functional, as opposed to attitudinal, group concerns; and (5) policy priorities which recognize the need to co-opt labour, yet attract the support of capital and generate investment for growth. For more detailed discussions, see Schmitter, Philippe and Lehmbruch, Gerhard, eds, Trends Towards Corporatist Inter-Mediation (Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications, 1979).Google Scholar

8 The description above fits in well with the arguments presented by Kukushkin, M. S., ed., Razvitoi sotsializm: proizvodstvo material'nykh blag (Leningrad: Lenizdat, 1975)Google Scholar and Kelley, Donald, ‘The Soviet Image of the Future’, in Wesson, Robert, ed., The Soviet Union: Problems and Prospects (Stanford, California: Hoover Institution, 1979)Google Scholar; Evans, Alfred, ‘Developed Socialism in Soviet Ideology’, Soviet Studies, XXIX (1979), 409–28.Google Scholar

9 In particular, see Breslauer, George, Patterns of Leadership in the Soviet Union Since Stalin, unpublished manuscript (Berkeley, Calif: 1981)Google Scholar; Hough, Jerry, ‘The Brezhnev Era: The Man and the System’, Problems of Communism, XXV (1976), 1–17.Google Scholar

10 For a summary of the 1965 plenum, see Volkov, I. M., ‘Novy etap v razvitii sel'skogo khoziaistva SSSR’, Istoria SSSR, XXII (1975), 3–21.Google Scholar

11 Brezhnev, Leonid, Leninskim kursom, I (Moscow: Politizdat, 1970), pp. 4–5.Google Scholar Evidence on the socio-economic impact of these concerns can be found in McAuley, Alastair, Economic Welfare in the Soviet Union (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1979)Google Scholar; Bunce, , Do New Leaders Make a Difference?, pp. 167–9Google Scholar; Connor, Walter, Socialism, Work and Equality (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

12 A similar argument has been made by Breslauer, George, ‘Political Succession and the Soviet Policy Agenda’, Problems of Communism, XXIX (1980), 34–52.Google Scholar

13 For evidence on this point, see Bunce, , Do New Leaders Make a Difference?, Chap. 5.Google Scholar

14 Evstigneev, R. N., ‘Sotsialisticheskaia integratsiia kak faktor povysheniia effektivnosti obshchestvennogo proizvodstva’, in Voprosy ekonomicheskoi politiki, pp. 224–43Google Scholar; Bornstein, Morris, ‘Soviet–Eastern European Economic Relations’, in Bornstein, Morris, Gitelman, Zvi and Zimmerman, William, eds., East–West Relations and the Future of Eastern Europe (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981), pp. 105–26.Google Scholar

15 Cocks, Paul, ‘Re-Tooling the Directed Society: Administrative Modernization and Developed Socialism’, in Triska, Jan and Cocks, Paul, eds, Political Development in Eastern Europe (New York: Praeger, 1977), pp. 53–92Google Scholar; Katz, Zev, The Politics of Economic Reform in the Soviet Union (New York: Praeger, 1972)Google Scholar; Gustafson, Thane, Reform in Soviet Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), Chaps. 1–4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

16 Bush, Keith, ‘Soviet Agriculture: Ten Years Under New Management’, Radio Liberty Research Paper, 1974.Google Scholar

17 Hardt, John, ‘Summary’, in The Soviet Economy in a Time of Change, Volume I (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1979), pp. 1–22Google Scholar; Grossman, Gregory, ‘An Economy at Middle Age’, Problems of Communism, XXV (1976), 18–33.Google Scholar

18 ‘Fingers’ is the term used by Charles Lindblom to describe the strength of markets as opposed to the brute strength – the ‘thumbs’ – of planning. See Politics and Markets (New York: Basic Books, 1977).Google Scholar

19 See Nove, Alec, ‘The Soviet Economy: Problems and Prospects’, New Left Review, XXXVIII (1980), 3–19.Google Scholar A similar argument has been made for Yugoslavia: see Comisso, Ellen, Workers Control Under Plan and Market (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1979).Google Scholar

20 Bunce, , Do New Leaders Make a Difference?, pp. 166–70.Google Scholar

21 Matthews, Mervyn, Privilege in the Soviet Union (London: Allen and Unwin, 1978), pp. 128–30Google Scholar; Minkoff, Jack and Turgeon, Lynn, ‘Income Maintenance in the Soviet Union in Eastern and Western Perspectives’, in Horowitz, Irving, ed., Equity, Income and Policy: Comparative Studies in Three Worlds of Development (New York: Praeger, 1977), pp. 176–211.Google Scholar

22 For example, see ‘Luchshe rabotat' – luchshe zhit',’ Kommunist, LXII (1982), 3–12Google Scholar; ‘Pochin-rezerv effektivnost’, Kommunist, LXII (1982), 3–12.Google Scholar

23 This is summarized by Home, Robert, ‘Détente “Myths” and Soviet Foreign Policy’, in Potichnyj, Peter and Shapiro, Jane, eds, From the Cold War to Détente (New York: Praeger, 1976), pp. 99–121Google Scholar; Vernon, Graham, ‘Controlled Conflict: Soviet Perceptions of Peaceful Coexistence’, Orbis, XXIII (1979), 271–98Google Scholar; Husband, William, ‘Soviet Perceptions of U.S. “Position of Strength” Diplomacy in the 1970s’, World Politics, XXXI (1979), 495–517CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Griffiths, Franklyn, ‘Images, Politics and Learning in Soviet Behavior towards the United States’, unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Columbia University, 1972.Google Scholar

24 Shersnev, E. S., SSSR-SShA: ekonomicheskiye otnosheniya. Problemy i vozmozhnosti (Moscow: Nauka, 1976).Google Scholar

25 This is not to suggest that these needs were uni-directional. American business in the early stages of détente, for example, was very interested in penetrating such a large, untapped market, and political détente was appealing as well. See Bell, Coral, ‘Soviet–American Strategic Balance, the Western Alliance, and East–West Relations’Google Scholar, in Bornstein, et al. , eds, East–West Relations, pp. 11–30.Google Scholar

26 Bornstein, Morris, ‘Soviet–East European Economic Relations’Google Scholar, in Bornstein, et al. , eds, East–West Relations, pp. 105–26Google Scholar; Vanous, Jan and Marrese, Michael, Implicit Subsidies and Non-Market Benefits in Soviet Trade with Eastern Europe (Berkeley, California: Institute of International Studies, 1982).Google Scholar

27 Pravda, Alex, ‘East–West Interdependence and the Social Compact in Eastern Europe’Google Scholar, in Bornstein, et al. , eds, East–West Relations, pp. 162–90Google Scholar; Triska, Jan, ‘Workers' Assertiveness and Soviet Policy Choices’, in Triska, Jan and Gati, Charles, eds, Blue Collar Workers in Eastern Europe (London: Allen and Unwin, 1981), pp. 268–82.Google Scholar

28 The arguments in this section are based on the data presented by Vanous, and Marrese, , Implicit SubsidiesGoogle Scholar; Portes, Richard, The Polish Crisis: Western Economic Policy Options (London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 1981)Google Scholar; Bornstein, Morris, ‘Issues in East–West Economic Relations’Google Scholar, in Bornstein, et al. , eds, East–West Relations, pp. 33–52Google Scholar; Ortmayer, Louis, ‘Poland's Foreign Debt and Re-Scheduling: The Impact in East and West’, paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Studies Association in Cincinnati, Ohio, 03 1982.Google Scholar

29 Payer, Cheryl, The Debt Trap (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974).Google Scholar

30 See United Nations, Economic Survey of Europe, Volume 33 (New York: The United Nations, 1981), p. 1.6Google Scholar; International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook (New York: The International Monetary Fund, 1981), pp. 135–7Google Scholar; ‘Now Russia Asks for Time to Pay’, The Economist, 6 02 1982, p. 79.Google Scholar

31 Levcik, Friedrich and Stankovsky, Jan, Industrial Cooperation Between East and West (White Plains, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1979), pp. 41–54CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gitelman, Zvi, ‘The World Economy and Elite Political Strategies in Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Poland’Google Scholar, in Bornstein, Morris et al. , eds., East–West Relations, pp. 127–61.Google Scholar

32 Marrese, and Vanous, , Implicit SubsidiesGoogle Scholar; Bunce, Valerie, ‘The Divergence Between Economics and Empire: Changing Center-Periphery Relations in the Soviet Bloc’, paper presented at the Midwest Political Science meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 04 1982.Google Scholar

33 Radway, Laurence, ‘The Curse of Free Elections’, Foreign Policy, XL (1980), 61–73CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Bell, , ‘Soviet American Strategic Balance’.Google Scholar

34 Refer to SShA: Vneshnaia politika i vybory 1960 gody (Moscow: Mezhdunarodnoc Zhizn', 1960)Google Scholar; Kortunov, V., ‘New Factors in International Relations and Bourgeois Politology’, International Affairs (Moscow), XXIII (1977), 104–14Google Scholar; Nikolayev, Y., ‘Soviet–American Relations: Problems and Prospects’, International Affairs (Moscow), XXII (1976), 13–23Google Scholar; Khurkin, V., SShA: Mezhdunarodno-politicheckie krizis (Moscow: Nauka, 1975).Google Scholar

35 Kerst, Kenneth, ‘CPSU History Re-Revisited’, Problems of Communism, XXVI (1977), 17–32Google Scholar; Davis, Christopher and Feshbach, Murray, ‘Rising Infant Mortality in the USSR in the 1970's’ (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Commerce, 1979)Google Scholar; Bialer, Seweryn, ‘The Policies of Stringency in the USSR’, Problems of Communism, XXIX (1980), 19–33Google Scholar; ‘Pochin-reserv effektivnost”, see fn. 22.

36 Meyer, Alfred, The Soviet Political System (New York: Random House, 1965).Google Scholar

37 Skocpol, Theda, States and Social Revolutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1979).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

38 Barnet, Richard, Real Security: Restoring American Power in a Dangerous Decade (New York: Simon and Shuster, 1981), p. 39.Google Scholar