The Politics of Economic Stagnation in the Soviet Union

"In this book, Professor Peter Rutland analyses the role played by regional and local organs of the Soviet Communist Party in economic management from 1970 to 1989. Using a range of political and economic journals, newspapers and academic publications, he examines interventions in the construction industry, energy, transport, consumer goods and agriculture."--BOOK JACKET. "Rutland argues that party interventions hindered rather than assisted the search for efficiency in the Soviet economy, and repeated attempts to introduce more economically rational management methods failed to alter these traditional patterns of party intervention. He further demonstrates how, as the Soviet economy matured and grew more complex over the last three decades, party interventions became increasingly out of tune with the needs of the economy. Yet even the calls for radical reform of the economy since 1985 were not accompanied by any decisive changes in this pattern of party intervention; this, argues Peter Rutland, casts serious doubts on the political feasibility of economic reform in a Soviet-type system."--BOOK JACKET. "The politics of economic stagnation in the Soviet Union presents a pioneering study of the economic and political background to Gorbachev's perestroika and the impact of his reformist policies. It makes an important contribution to existing literature and will be widely read by students and specialists of Soviet studies, political economy and comparative industrial policy."--BOOK JACKET.