Stealing the State : Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions (Russian Research Center Studies)
Editorial Reviews
Review
Linda Cook, Brown University : Solnick addresses one of the most important questions about the breakdown of the Soviet Union: Why did seemingly stable Soviet institutions disintegrate so rapidly during Gorbachev's reforms? In constructing his answer, Solnick uses a neo-institutional conceptual framework, which focuses the analysis on authority structures of institutions and incentives for individual bureaucratic actors. This is an original, richly documented and engagingly written study that reconceptualizes our understanding of major elements of the Soviet collapse.
William Zimmerman, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan : Solnick makes a strong case for taking seriously the role that the collapse of institutions internally played in the overall collapse of the Soviet Union. Stealing the State is a major contribution to our understanding of one of the great events of the twentieth century.
Book Description
What led to the breakdown of the Soviet Union? Steven Solnick argues, contrary to most current literature, that the Soviet system did not fall victim to stalemate at the top or to a revolution from below, but rather to opportunism from within. In three case studies--on the Communist Youth League, the system of job assignments for university graduates, and military conscription--Solnick makes use of rich archival sources and interviews to tell the story from a new perspective, and to employ and test Western theories of the firm in the Soviet environment. He finds that even before Gorbachev, mechanisms for controlling bureaucrats in Soviet organizations were weak, allowing these individuals great latitude in their actions. Once reforms began, they translated this latitude into open insubordination by seizing the very organizational assets they were supposed to be managing. Thus, the Soviet system, Solnick argues, suffered the organizational equivalent of a colossal bank run. When the servants of the state stopped obeying orders from above, the state's fate was sealed.
By incorporating economic theories of institutions into a political theory of Soviet breakdown and collapse, Stealing the State offers a powerful and dynamic account of the most important international political event of the later twentieth century.
Stealing the State : Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions (Russian Research Center Studies)
Stealing the State : Control and Collapse in Soviet Institutions (Russian Research Center Studies),Steven L. Solnick,Harvard University Press,0674836804,1970-1991,Business & Economics,Case studies,Economic Policy,Europe - Russia & the Former Soviet Union,Finance,Financial Institutions,History - General History,History: World,Institutional economics,Organizational change,Political History,Social conditions,Soviet Union,History / Soviet Union
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