3rd Edition. — Praeger, 1966. — 275 p.
Russian Political Institutions by Derek J. R. Scott was first published in 1958. This most valuable stuey is intended primarily to meet the need of university students for a good account of the political institutions of the Soviet Union in terms similar to those used in their study of other countries. Though the unique comprehensiveness of the Soviet state’s concerns, to which the book draws attention, precludes a formally comparative approach, the ways in which its business is done can be explained, as elsewhere, by the country’s circumstances and historical experience. The first chapter indicates something of these circumstances and experience and of the motives of the Soviet state. The second explains the way the distinctive institutional form of the Soviet state came into being and the process by which it assumed some of the conventional state machinery. The third examines this conventional state and its unconventional functions in a Russian Communist setting. The fourth concerns the structure and operation of the complex device called the Party. The fifth, in turn, examines the means evolved for the fulfillment of the state’s main task, the management of the fully nationalized economy as a single concern, and the other main systems of control, including the judicial system. The sixth chapter suggests briefly how priorities of tasks are decided upon, obligations determined, and their performance secured. This is a must read for students and scholars of Russian history and Soviet politics.
Contents
Preface
Introduction: scope of the attempt
Difficulties of Russian Studies v Method and Plan
I. What Russian Politics are About
Material Inheritance
Territory and natural endowment
Foreign contacts and expansion of the Russians Late development
Administrative Tradition
Absence of representative institutions
Absence of local self-government
Peasant emancipation and the rural commune Alexander H’s local-government reform Judicial reform
A country of poor peasants
Attitudes
Peasant discontent, rural and urban
Lack of firm body of support for the regime Disruptive force of the intelligentsia
What is national character?
Russian national character before the revolution
Military defeat precipitates revolt of 1905 First acceptance of liberal democracy
Doctrinal Equipment
Why Marxism appealed to the Russians
Difficulties and organisation of the early Russian
Marxists
Lenin’s Russification of Marxist doctrine
What belief in Marxism has changed in Russia
The Manner of Seizing Power
The prepared ‘October’ revolution of 1917
The issues remaining to be solved The lessons to the ambitious
The Issues
Who shall rule?
Economic priorities?
The frontiers and security
Particularism
Local alliances in the centralised state
The Periods
War communism and anti-bolshevik threats
The N.E.P. and the succession to Lenin
Planning and the consolidation of Stalin’s power Unbridled Stalinism
Unstable oligarchy
The Participants
II. Soviets, Union and Constitutional State
The Invention of the Soviets
Marx on the Paris commune
The soviets of 1905
Lenin builds them into the Marxist state
His attitude between ‘February’ and ‘October’ Congresses of soviets and executive committees Addition of a government of conventional type By-passing the soviets (‘dual subordination’) Purging the soviets
Absence of a legal formulation of sovietism
The Union
Nationalist demands and Russian bolshevik response Bolshevik acceptance of ‘federalism’ (‘autonomy’) Its content
The People’s Commissariat for Nationalities
The formation of the U.S.S.R.
The Union legislature
The types of ministries
Sense in which this is ‘not federalism’
Federal powers over federated units
A matter of ‘subordination’, not of limitation
Utility of Soviet autonomy-federalism
Promotion to the status of a federated unit
Autonomous units
How secure is federal and autonomous status?
Administrative Areas
Economic motive of division, and mutability The invention of new areas (1920’s)
The problem of the intermediate level (1930’s)
The Stalinist trend to fragmentation and its reversal Consolidation of ‘village’ and district areas—motive What it means in terms of population Manifestation of urbanisation Why keep the ‘village’ soviet?
Collective Administration
‘Collegiality’
The collective head of state
The ministry ‘collegium’
‘Collegiality’ and ‘one-man headship’ in industrial management
Collective management of national economy replaced by ministerial management
The Function of Soviet Constitutionalism
Why constitutions are made
Soviet Union’s lack of pressing motive to adopt a written constitution
The occasions of the three constitutions
The manner of making of the 1936 constitution
Contents of the Constitution
The chapter headings
Declarations of faith (Chapters I and X)
Rights of federating units
Excess of detail in political structure and machinery
Apparent return to the separation of powers
Amendment and interpretation of the constitution
Uniformity of constitutions òf federated and autonomous units
Utility of the Constitution
The constitution as record Supplementary evidence The constitution as ideology
What Remains?
III. Conventional State Machinery
The Representative Bodies—What They Are
Size and basis of election of U.S.S.R. Supreme Soviet Supreme Soviets of union and autonomous republics Local soviets
Soviets no longer ‘political foundation’ of the U.S.S.R.
How They are Formed
Unequal representation before 1936 Franchise under 1936 constitution
Method of voting
Electoral commissions
Registration
Nomination and constituency conferences
Practice of open voting
Cases and causes of failure to secure election
Some functions of Soviet elections
Product of the elections (party membership, etc.)
Pattern of composition of 1954 Supreme Soviet
What They Do
Rules and practice on frequency of meetings
Verification of mandates
Officers of the Supreme Soviet
Standing commissions of Supreme Soviet
Local standing commissions
Separate and joint sessions of houses of Supreme Soviet
Nature of discussion
Official categorisation of Supreme Soviet business
Business performed by 1954 Supreme Soviet
Business of a local soviet
Soviets as vehicle of criticism of local administration
Lobbying in the soviet system
Soviets as briefing conferences
Soviets as schools of government
Why people attend soviets
The Inner Bodies—How They are Formed
Nature of executive committees, praesidia, bureaux
Praesidium of a Supreme Soviet
Executive committee of a local soviet
Selection of members of an executive committee
Type of person selected
Councils of ministers
Quality of the ministers
Other members of thè Council of Ministers
Praesidium of the Council of Ministers
Ministers and Supreme Soviet
Councils of ministers of union republics
What They Do
Acts of the councils of ministers
Acts of the Praesidium of the Supreme Soviet
Meetings of the councils of ministers and praesidia
Their part in the system of hierarchic supervision
Work of a local soviet executive committee
An urban local soviet executive committee
Acts of executive committees
Meetings of executive committees
Supervision over supervision
Reconciliation of myth and practical needs
The Ministries and Departments
The ministries at federal level
The ministries at union-republic level
Ministries and administrations of autonomous republics Departments and administrations of local executive committees
Internal structure of the ministries
Ministerial acts and authority The minister and his collegium
IV. The Party
Structure
Relations of the party structure to the state structure Party rules and designations
Structure of primary organisations of the party Representative machinery of the party Committees and central committees
Bureaux and secretaries
Congresses of the C.P.S.U.
Central Committee of the C.P.S.U.
Plenary meetings of the Central Committee Former bureaux of the Central Committee
Praesidium of the Central Committee Bureaux of republican party central committees Secretariat of the party
The First Secretaryship since Stalin
The junior secretaries
Central checking (‘revision’) commission
Committee of party control Advancement at the top
Staff
Changing principles of organisation of party staff Party schools
Work in the Forces and with Youth
Party groups; party work in ministries and armed forces Party work with youth
Membership
Principles of recruitment
Party strength in 1917
Recruiting drives
Exclusions and restrictions
The party in the period of purges
Recruitment rules and practice from 1939 The post-war membership policy
Composition by nationality
Composition by sex Composition by occupation
The party and its allies in the state machinery Interlocking of party and state deliberative bodies
What Membership Means
Duties of membership Rights of membership
Financial and social burdens of membership
Dangers of membership
Incentives to seek membership
Influence of members
Influence and obligations of office-holders
Paid officials
Advancement in the party
The Party as Administrative Machinery
The task set the party
How the party works in the administration
Party oversight
Party responsibility for agriculture
Party responsibility for staffing (‘cadres’)
The ‘nomenklatura’ in party staffing work
Principle of abstention from detail
Shortcomings of party officials
The cost of party oversight
The Party as Organised Faith
Ideology
The utility of ideology
The cost of ideology
Party self-education and propaganda
Distinction of propaganda and agitation
The Central Committee department of propaganda and agitation
Party control of the press
Members’ neglect of ideological work
The Party as Symbol
Embodiment of the revolutionary tradition
Embodiment of internationalism
V. The Web of Management
Organisation in Industry
‘Subordination’ of industrial enterprises
The links with the ministry
Agriculture
The ministerial pattern
The constitution of collective farms
The management of collective farms
Checks upon the management
State farms and collective farms
The collective-farm members’ incentives
Machine-tractor stations
Disposal of produce
Organs of Detection and Regulation
The banking system
Audit
State control
Police
The procuracy
Organs of Adjudication
Arbitration
The judicial system
Civil business of the courts
Criminal business of the Courts
Other punitive jurisdictions
Pressures on the judges
The quality of Soviet judicial work
Other Lines of Control
Trade unions
The press Specialised societies, churches, etc.
The Men in the Machine
Recruitment and establishments in industry
Posting
Powers of the manager
Unauthorised managerial methods
Education and the Educated
The general education system
Higher education
The content of Soviet education
The learned institutions and their task
Assignments, incentives and limitations of the Soviet educated
The scholar and politics
The Armed Forces
The citizen’s experience of the forces The officers
Political influence of the military
VI. Decision and Performance
Top-level Decisions
What is the sovereign decision-taking body?
What sort of matters does it decide?
Planning and Budgeting
The economic plan—a general order The instruments of planning Their preparation
Budgets
The process of budgeting
Heads of revenue
The revenue of local soviets
Responsibility for expenditure
Low-level Decisions
Occasions for general consultation of the public
How to get things done from below
The field for private agreement and initiative
Securing Performance—Economic
Financial incentives to plan-fulfilment
Negative side to emphasis on plan-fulfilment
Securing Performance—General
Absence of freedom from supervision—its results
Penal system
Economic motive in penal system
Incentives to the ambitious
The stimulus of general well-being
The sense of national danger
The sense of national power
The fiction of the enemy
Consequences of absence of party conflict
Bibliography
Index