Pluralism, Power and the Soviet Political System: A Comparative Perspective

Abstract

Debate among Western scholars on how power is distributed within the Soviet Union has been vigorous ever since the idea that totalitarianism was the key to understanding the Soviet system came under serious attack in the 1960s. In the Soviet Union itself the same decade saw the opening shots fired in a campaign to have power relations within the Soviet and other political systems discussed more realistically and less propagandistically than hitherto in the context of the development of a discipline of political science.1 It is only in recent years, however, that something like a debate on the nature of political power has got underway in specialized Soviet journals and small-circulation books. This paper will juxtapose these writings of Soviet scholars with the writings of Western political scientists on the nature of power relations within the Soviet system, partly because of the intrinsic interest of both bodies of writing and partly to see what relevance, if any, the Soviet discussions have to Western arguments concerning the nature of the Soviet system. Some attention is paid to theoretical accounts of the relationship between state and society, a common theme in the two bodies of work.KeywordsPolitical SystemPolitical PowerCommunist PartyCentral CommitteeRelative AutonomyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.