Authority, Power and Policy in the USSR

Fülszöveg

'This is a fine volume, combining essays of impeccable scholarship with more argumentative pieces - it is incidentally a good advertisement for the standard of Russian and Soviet studies in British universities ' - Ronald J. Hill, The Times Literary Supplement
This book throws new light on the sources of political authority in the Soviet Union, the way power is distributed and exercised, and the making and execution of policy. It combines fresh theoretical approaches with case studies demonstrating the operation of authority, power and policy in different fields, periods and sectors of the system. While offering the reader a diversity of interpretative viewpoints, the authors share the conviction that the structure of power cannot be understood without attention to its legitimating beliefs, attitudes and myths, that the two mutually reinforce, condition and limit each other, and that together they largely mould both the content of policy and the way it is implemented. A central... Tovább

Fülszöveg

'This is a fine volume, combining essays of impeccable scholarship with more argumentative pieces - it is incidentally a good advertisement for the standard of Russian and Soviet studies in British universities ' - Ronald J. Hill, The Times Literary Supplement
This book throws new light on the sources of political authority in the Soviet Union, the way power is distributed and exercised, and the making and execution of policy. It combines fresh theoretical approaches with case studies demonstrating the operation of authority, power and policy in different fields, periods and sectors of the system. While offering the reader a diversity of interpretative viewpoints, the authors share the conviction that the structure of power cannot be understood without attention to its legitimating beliefs, attitudes and myths, that the two mutually reinforce, condition and limit each other, and that together they largely mould both the content of policy and the way it is implemented. A central concern is the problem of identifying and explaining continuities and change in the development of the Soviet system, and the various chapters explore this problem either by tracing particular aspects over a substantial time-span or by focusing on crucial shifts of structure, ideology or policy. The book thus contributes to a better understanding of how and why the system came to be as it is and what are the possibilities and preconditions of major change.
The editors
T. H. Rigby is Professorial Fellow in Political Science, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University.
Archie Brown is a Fellow of St Antony's College, Oxford, and Lecturer in Soviet Institutions at the University of Oxford.
Peter Reddaway is Senior Lecturer in Political Science at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The cover-design incorporates a photograph of the Kremlin
ISBN 0 333 34672 6 L6.95 Vissza