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the late 1960s, however, some commentators began to question the
applicability of this concept to brezhnev抯 ussr. they pointed to
new developments in soviet politics, which signaled a departure from
the 揷lassical?totalitarian model, including the end to mass
terror, the replacement of one-man rule by the emphasis on
揷ollectivist?leadership, and a certain liberalization of the
regime. but the chief argument on which their critique of the
totalitarian concept was based concerned the qualitatively new level
of interest groups?activity in the post-stalin era. |
the
rise of interest groups in soviet society allowed this school of
analysts to speak of a special type of 揝oviet pluralism.?one of
the founders of the 損luralist model?of soviet politics, the
canadian-american scholar gordon skilling, maintained, in
particular, that communist politics was based on an interplay of
interests.
the
american analyst jerry hough further developed the pluralist group
approach in relation to the soviet system. he believed that
brzezinski抯 claim that the soviet political system was unique and
had nothing in common with western political systems was too
sweeping and not suitable to describe the post-stalin stage of
soviet development. hough described the political process in the
ussr as 揵ureaucratic conflict?that involved specific interest
groups, such as ministries and economic departments in charge of the
more important branches of the economy, the military-industrial
more important branches of the economy, the military-industrial
complex, the central committee departments, which often defended the
interests of economic sectors under their tutelage, and the regional
party-state elites. as for western-style autonomous interest groups,
such as trade unions and other public organizations, they either did
not exist or had a negligible influence on soviet politics.
in
hough抯 model the top party-state leadership played the part of
揻inal arbiter,?reconciling these bureaucratic interests rather
than imposing dictatorially its will on the lower power structures
and society. describing his model as 搃nstitutional pluralism,?
hough claimed that it restricted the power of the general secretary
and the politburo, forcing them to follow the advice of specific
bureaucratic groups and mediating conflicts between them. in
practice, the elaboration of policies was often delegated to
interested bureaucracies.
in
other words, the principles of policy formulation and decision
making in the soviet union were not that different from pluralist
making in the soviet union were not that different from pluralist
politics in western countries. the main distinction was in the type
of interest groups: in the west they were mostly voluntary public
associations, whereas in the ussr they were represented by
institutional structures formed within the system.
