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The Soviet Economy in Transition
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17452 |
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Section : |
SPECIAL SECTION
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Date : |
1 / 1990 |
3,143 Words |
| Author
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Abel Aganbegyan
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The future of the Soviet economy is bound up with the perestroika processes that are at present under way in this country. The perestroika drive was launched on Mikhail Gorbachev's initiative in 1983. It is an integrated and comprehensive campaign. Soviet foreign policies have radically changed due to new political thinking, a new view of the world, and the priority of global human values over the interests and concerns of individual countries. The new foreign policy line contributed to moving from confrontation to cooperation and joint effort toward the consolidation of peace. This policy made it possible to begin the process of disarmament and provided for cuts in military spending. Internally, a deep political reform is being carried out, designed to ensure democratization and glasnost as well as the transition to the rule of law. As a result, human rights in the Soviet Union have been measurably expanded.
Anticipated Economic Reform
Economic reform is a top priority component in the restructuring of Soviet society. It is designed to radically re-conceptualize and modernize the entire economic system.
First, the Soviet Union must move from the present deficit-haunted economy with its producers' fiat to a new economic mechanism. Production should be subordinated to meeting social needs, and both its range and scope should be determined by the consumers. Top priority should be given to the social requirements associated with the improved living standards. Thus, it should move from an economy oriented toward increasing the scale of production to a new, socially oriented, people-oriented economy. The Soviet leaders should radically restructure the entire national economy, reconsider its priorities, and be first and foremost concerned about meeting human needs.
Second, our industries should switch over from basically extensive economic development, which draws on additional resources, to intensive development, which increases efficiency and quality through accelerated technical progress. The Soviet economy should become a highly effective economy of the scientific and technical revolution.
Third, the command methods of economic management should give way to a new economic mechanism that will largely rely on the market, material incentives, and the large-scale involvement of working people in production management.
Finally, the closed economy should be converted to an open economic system integrated into the world economy and market. The new image of the Soviet economy should include, among other things, developed foreign economic relations, joint ventures, and a convertible ruble.
A New Model of Socialism
Thus, we have developed an entirely new model of socialism that must replace the old one, elaborated during the years of Stalin's rule. The Stalinist model was based on the overall nationalization of economic relations, the exclusive role of public property, and the alienation of the working people from the means of production as well as the goods produced. The working people were simply cogs in the economic machine. This administrative barracks model of socialism, which shut out the people and oppressed them, had nothing in common
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