Red sunset : the failure of Soviet politics / Philip G. Roeder.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Roeder, Philip G., Author.

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies, Sonstige.

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

ACLS Humanities E-Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Authoritarianism--Soviet Union.

Authoritarianism.

Constitutional history--Soviet Union.

Constitutional history.

Soviet Union--Politics and government.

Soviet Union.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 317 p.) ill.

Place of Publication:

Princeton, N.J. Princeton University Press 1993

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Why did the Soviet system fail? How is it that a political order, born of revolution, perished from stagnation? What caused a seemingly stable polity to collapse? Philip Roeder finds the answer to these questions in the Bolshevik "constitution"--the fundamental rules of the Soviet system that evolved from revolutionary times into the post-Stalin era. These rules increasingly prevented the Communist party from responding to the immense social changes that it had itself set in motion: although the Soviet political system initially had vast resources for transforming society, its ability to transform itself became severely limited.In Roeder's view, the problem was not that Soviet leaders did not attempt to change, but that their attempts were so often defeated by institutional resistance to reform. The leaders' successful efforts to stabilize the political system reduced its adaptability, and as the need for reform continued to mount, stability became a fatal flaw. Roeder's analysis of institutional constraints on political behavior represents a striking departure from the biographical approach common to other analyses of Soviet leadership, and provides a strong basis for comparison of the Soviet experience with constitutional transformation in other authoritarian polities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures

Tables

Preface

CHAPTER ONE Why Did Soviet Bolshevism Fail?

CHAPTER TWO The Authoritarian Constitution

CHAPTER THREE Creating the Constitution of Bolshevism, 1917-1953

CHAPTER FOUR Reciprocal Accountability, 1953-1986

CHAPTER FIVE Balanced Leadership, 1953-1986

CHAPTER SIX Institutionalized Stagnation

CHAPTER SEVEN The Domestic Policy Spiral

CHAPTER EIGHT The Dialectics of Military Planning

CHAPTER NINE The Failure of Constitutional Reform,1987-1991

CHAPTER TEN Can Authoritarian Institutions Survive?

Notes

Select Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. [307]-310) and index.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [307]-310) and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9781400843817

1400843812

OCLC:

1246579709