Executive Power and Political Leadership

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Democratising and decentralising forces are driving the political agenda and institutional restructuring now under way in the states that constitute the former USSR. Decades of mounting economic pressures, exacerbated by below-the-surface political and ethnic tensions, led to the dramatic policy changes of the latter 1980s and 1990s. The policies of perestroika, glasnost’ and democratisation all fuelled the momentum for root-and-branch political, economic and societal changes that have been shaking the Soviet polity and society. These developments put a severe strain on the complex, developed and once well-entrenched Soviet political system. By 1991, the long-dominant nomenklatura elite was scrambling to retain at least a part of its traditional privileged status through ‘golden parachute’ opportunities in cooperatives, academic institutes and even elected parliamentary bodies. Once unchallenged Communist Party (CPSU) and state apparatus posts were rapidly succumbing to the pressures of democratisation and open political competition; later the party posts disappeared entirely.