Stealing the State
Douban
Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions
Steven L. Solnick
résumé
What led to the breakdown of the Soviet Union? Steven Solnick argues, contrary to most current literature, that the Soviet system did not fall victim to stalemate at the top or to a revolution from below, but rather to opportunism from within. In three case studies--on the Communist Youth League, the system of job assignments for university graduates, and military conscription--Solnick makes use of rich archival sources and interviews to tell the story from a new perspective, and to employ and test Western theories of the firm in the Soviet environment. He finds that even before Gorbachev, mechanisms for controlling bureaucrats in Soviet organizations were weak, allowing these individuals great latitude in their actions. Once reforms began, they translated this latitude into open insubordination by seizing the very organizational assets they were supposed to be managing. Thus, the Soviet system, Solnick argues, suffered the organizational equivalent of a colossal bank run. When the servants of the state stopped obeying orders from above, the state’s fate was sealed.
By incorporating economic theories of institutions into a political theory of Soviet breakdown and collapse, Stealing the State offers a powerful and dynamic account of the most important international political event of the later twentieth century.
contenus
Introduction
Objectives of This Book
The Approach
The Basic Argument
Outline of the Book
1. Control and Collapse: Reformulating Traditional Approaches
A Framework for Analyzing Institutional and Policy Change
Power and Control in Soviet Institutions: "Traditional" Theories
Summary
2. Control and Collapse: Neoinstitutional Approaches
Neoinstitutional Approaches to Hierarchy
Explaining Institutional Change
Behavioral Theories: "What’s So Neo about Neoinstitutionalism?
Summary
3. Testing Theories of Institutional Change: The Soviet Youth Program
A Strategy for Hypothesis Testing
Comrades and Sons: Generational Conflict and Soviet Policy
Summary
4. The Communist Youth League
Background
Institutional Dynamics within the Komsomol
Crisis and Collapse of the All- Union Komsomol
Summary
5. Job Assignments for University Graduates
Background
Institutional Dynamics of Raspredelenie
The Collapse of the Job Assignments System
Summary
6. Universal Military Service
Background
Institutional Dynamics of Conscription Policy
Crisis and Breakdown of the Conscription System
Summary
7. The Breakdown of Hierarchy: Comparative Perspectives
Reviewing the Case Study Evidence
Additional Manifestations of Soviet Institutional Breakdown
Chinese Reforms: Successful Decentralization
8. Conclusions and Extensions: Control and Collapse in Hierarchies
Hierarchical Control and Collapse in Non-Communist Environments
After the Collapse: institutions in the Post-Communist States
Appendix: Data Sources
Notes
Glossary and Abbreviations
Index