Interest Groups and Communist Politics Revisited

1983 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Gordon Skilling
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
Group Activity ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Group Approach ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Use Of Models

Empirical research has demonstrated the utility of an interest group approach for the study of Soviet politics, as well as for interpreting the politics of tsarist Russia and Eastern European communist systems and the dissident movements. The flowering of group activity in Poland and Czechoslovakia at certain times and the activity of dissent movements show, however, the rudimentary character of “normal” interest groups in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. Although the Soviet system has changed since Stalin's death, it remains fundamentally authoritarian in character. The use of models, such as totalitarian, authoritarian, bureaucratic, corporatist, and pluralist, hinders rather than facilitates an understanding of Soviet politics and of the place of interest groups in that system.

Soviet Politics and the Group Approach: A Conceptual Note

Slavic Review ◽  
1972 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 136-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
David E. Langsam ◽  
David W. Paul
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Group Theory ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Interest Groups ◽  
Interest Group ◽  
The United States ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Group Approach ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Social

One of the “Great Debates” among Soviet specialists in the social sciences today concerns the applicability of interest group theory to the study of Soviet politics. Though a large number of specialists have accepted the notion that interest groups do indeed play a certain kind of role in the Soviet system, there are still those who hold to the opinion, once taken for granted but in recent years challenged, that interest group theory simply does not apply to the Soviet Union. The strength of the latter argument lies in the fact that in the USSR interest groups do not operate publicly and openly, as they do in the United States; therefore, interest group theory as developed to fit the American context cannot describe or explain the dynamic processes of policymaking in Russia.

scholarly journals Spaces of Dependence and Emancipation in Architectural and Urban Narration, a Case Study: Plac Żołnierza Polskiego and Plac Solidarności in Szczecin

Arts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Izabela Kozłowska ◽  
Eryk Krasucki
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Economic Factors ◽  
Urban Structure ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Authoritarian State ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Urban Narratives ◽  
Eastern European Countries

Central and Eastern European countries were subjugated to the Soviet Union in the second half of the 20th century. In this new political environment, defined as the period of dependency, the concept of space gained a new denotation as a space of dependence, in both social and physical terms. The political changes that took place after 1989 enabled these spaces to be emancipated. In this work, we aim to delineate the complex relationship between architecture and politics from the perspective of spaces of dependence and their emancipation. Through a case study of two squares, plac Żołnierza Polskiego (the Square of the Polish Soldier) and plac Solidarności (Solidarity Square) in Szczecin, we gained insights into the processes and strategies that promoted their evolution into spaces of emancipation within architectural and urban narratives. Szczecin’s space of dependence was created by an authoritarian state that had a monopoly on defining architecture and urban planning in the country and the state as a whole. In a process orchestrated by economic factors, as well as the scale of architectural and urban degradation, the squares under discussion have transitioned from spaces of dependency to spaces of emancipation. As a result, an architectural-urban structure characterized by new cultural and identity values has been created.

The Soviet Union and the Challenge of the Future. Vol. I: The Soviet System: Stasis and Change

1989 ◽  
Vol 68 (2) ◽  
pp. 199
Author(s):  
John C. Campbell ◽  
Alexander Shtromas ◽  
Morton A. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Future

The Challenges to Social Control in Brezhnev’s Soviet Union, 1964-1982

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 160-173
Author(s):  
Fedor L. Sinitsyn
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
State Archive ◽  
Central State ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Russian State ◽  
The Government ◽  
General Secretary

This article examines the development of social control in the Soviet Union under Leonid Brezhnev, who was General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1964 to 1982. Historians have largely neglected this question, especially with regard to its evolution and efficiency. Research is based on sources in the Russian State Archive of Modern History (RGANI), the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI) and the Moscow Central State Archive (TSGAM). During Brezhnevs rule, Soviet propaganda reached the peak of its development. However, despite the fact that authorities tried to improve it, the system was ritualistic, unconvincing, unwieldy, and favored quantity over quality. The same was true for political education, which did little more than inspire sullen passivity in its students. Although officials recognized these failings, their response was ineffective, and over time Soviet propaganda increasingly lost its potency. At the same time, there were new trends in the system of social control. Authorities tried to have a foot in both camps - to strengthen censorship, and at the same time to get feedback from the public. However, many were afraid to express any criticism openly. In turn, the government used data on peoples sentiments only to try to control their thoughts. As a result, it did not respond to matters that concerned the public. These problems only increased during the era of stagnation and contributed to the decline and subsequent collapse of the Soviet system.

scholarly journals One for all, each on its own: Analysing the post-Soviet system of collective security

2016 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 81-110
Author(s):  
David Erkomaishvili
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Collective Security ◽  
Subsequent Transformation ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Security Relations ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Soviet Space ◽  
Post Soviet Space

The fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 allowed independent states, which emerged in its place, to construct their own alignments. The choice of the case for empirical analysis had been made based on several unique characteristics. Orthodox Alliance Theory had almost never properly addressed alignments in the post-Soviet space due to the lack of access to information during the Soviet period - along with the structure of the state: only Soviet alignment policies were taken into consideration, instead of those of its constituent republics as well - and modest interest of alliance theorists in the region. Continued disintegration of the post-Soviet space, which has not stopped with the collapse of the Soviet Union but keeps fragmenting further, creates a unique setting for researching the adequacy of Alliance Theory's classic assumptions as well as developing new approaches. This work traces the development of the post-Soviet system of collective security and its subsequent transformation into a series of bilateral security relations, along with the shortfall of multilateralism.

Armageddon and the Gulag, 1939–1945

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven A. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Mortality Rates ◽  
Postwar Period ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Total War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Initial Stage ◽  
Red Army ◽  
History Of

This chapter focuses on the Gulag during the Armageddon of the Great Patriotic War. It shows how the institutions, practices, and identities of the Gulag shifted in accord with the demands of total war. The war was an era of mass release on an unprecedented scale side by side with the highest mortality rates in the history of the Gulag system. After four years of brutal, exhausting warfare and a disastrous initial stage, the Soviet Union emerged from its Armageddon victorious. The early postwar period offered no indication that the Gulag would cease to be a mass social phenomenon within fifteen years. Rather, the Gulag remained a pillar in the reestablishment of the Soviet system, following the Red Army into liberated territories, so that every liberated district received its own corrective labor colony. By 1944, the camp and colony population began to grow again.

Remarks by Arthur Downey

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 179-185
Author(s):  
Arthur Downey ◽  
Leonore Burts
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet System ◽  
Forward Movement ◽  
Soviet Policy ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Political Economic ◽  
The U.S

I think Professor Jacobsen’s analysis of the unity, the comprehensiveness of the forward movement of Soviet policy and its military, diplomatic, political, economic, cultural advance may be quite true, but I wonder if we are not really only talking about a difference in degree from the U.S. system. I think the fact that Soviet policy is conceived of as a web, and that individual geographic areas or political, military, economic issues are not viewed or treated in isolation, is a concept or a method of conducting policy that is not peculiar to the Soviet Union. We have the same thing, with perhaps only a slight difference in degree as a result in part of the ability of the Soviet system to centralize.

Remarks by Walter Glass

1973 ◽  
Vol 67 (5) ◽  
pp. 194-198
Author(s):  
Walter Glass ◽  
Patricia O. Lawry
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The State ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Export Policy ◽  
Legal Problems ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern European Countries ◽  
East West ◽  
The U.S

I shall discuss some of the practical legal problems we have encountered in our efforts to trade with the Soviet Union and the Eastern European countries. I should like to say at the outset that ever since I began to work in this field in 1964, the U.S. Government has been very helpful. Within the framework of congressional export policy, the Department of Commerce has always endeavored to make allowance for the needs of the American businessman. The State Department has also been helpful; I recall in particular a really first-rate briefing by our embassy in Bucharest when East-West trade was a very new subject.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document