Legislative Authority in the Soviet Political System

Slavic Review ◽  
1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Richard Little
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Political System ◽  
National Level ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Legislative Authority ◽  
Legislative Body ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Right

It is a settled principle of Soviet constitutional law that the USSR Supreme Soviet is the supreme representative organ, the supreme legislative body, and the supreme executor of the people's sovereignty. The 1936 Constitution subordinates all other organs of government to the Supreme Soviet, and it alone, on the national level, has the right to form governments, pass laws, and amend the Constitution. The Constitution also stipulates, however, that the Communist Party of the Soviet Union is “the vanguard of the workers in their struggle for the construction of a communist society and constitutes the guiding core of all workers’ organizations, public as well as governmental.”

Government Rulemaking as a Brake on Perestroika

1990 ◽  
Vol 15 (03) ◽  
pp. 419-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Huskey
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Economic Reform ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Political System ◽  
Executive Branch ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Government

The Soviet political system is made up of three major institutions: the Communist Party, the parliament, and the government. Whereas the first two have changed dramatically under perestroika, the government has continued to function in more traditional ways. Most worrying to reformists, the government–the Soviet Union's “executive branch”–has used its broad rulemaking authority to impede the transformation of Soviet politics and society. This essay examines the role of governmental rules in the Soviet political and legal system. It concludes, following the lead of Soviet reformists, that without a fundamental restructuring of government making authority, legal, political, and economic reform in the Soviet Union cannot be institutionalized.

Legitimacy and Power in the Soviet Union Through Socialist Ritual

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-217 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christel Lane
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Political System ◽  
Political Legitimacy ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Theoretical Argument ◽  
Change Over Time ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The Right ◽  
Over Time

Every political system must secure compliance with its commands on the part of the ruled; the methods applied to achieve this vary from society to society and within societies over time. One way of gaining compliance is for political elites to establish the legitimacy of the political system, of their position within it, and of the commands that are issued. Political power can be said to be legitimate when, in the words of Sternberger, it is exercised both with a consciousness on the part of the elite that it has a right to govern and with some recognition by the ruled of that right. Both this consciousness of the right to govern and its acknowledgement by the ruled is derived from some source of authorization which may change over time. This paper will focus on the conscious attempts of Soviet political elites from the early sixties onwards to change their strategy of gaining compliance by reducing reliance on coercion and strengthening political legitimacy. It will draw attention to their efforts to develop a new source of authorization and to employ a new legitimation procedure. In developing the theoretical argument the Weberian typology of legitimate rule will be employed, and this approach to the topic will be contrasted with that adopted by T. H. Rigby in two recent publications.

Communism

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Archie Brown
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
State Ownership ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Communist Society ◽  
Democratic Centralism ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Ideology ◽  
Over Time ◽  
Means Of Production

The chapter traces pre-Marxist ideas of a communist society before outlining the main elements of the Communist doctrine of Marx, Engels, and Lenin. Particular attention is paid to the theory and practice of Communist parties in power. The Soviet Union, China, and Yugoslavia developed models which varied both over time and from each other. Nevertheless, six defining characteristics of Communist ideology are identified and elaborated—the monopoly of power of the ruling Communist party; democratic centralism; state ownership of the means of production; centrally planned rather than market economy; membership of an international Communist movement; and the aspiration, in principle, to move eventually to a stateless, classless communist society. During the Soviet perestroika all six of these features were discarded. In contemporary China only the first two of the six remain. Communism no longer exists as a serious ideological and political force.

scholarly journals Dismantling an Innovation: The November 1964 Decision Reunifying Industrial and Agricultural Organs of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1985 ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Barbara Ann Chotiner
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political System ◽  
New Products ◽  
Central Committee ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Agricultural Organizations ◽  
Great Purges

Two years after the November 1962 decision to divide the Communist party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) into separate industrial and agricultural organs, the new Brezhnev-Kosygin leadership reunited the party. The reorganization was and remains the most fundamental reform of the Soviet political system since the Great Purges. Restructuring the CPSU "on the production principle" had divided party committees below the union-republican level into industrial and agricultural organizations. Raikoms and some gorkoms were abolished; territorial production kolkhozsovkhoz administration (TPA) party committees and zonal-industrial party committees were established. The CPSU Central Committee (CC) and its unionrepublican counterparts acquired specialized bureaus to oversee production in the different economic spheres. 1 As a result of the 1962 reorganization, party involvement in the economy became more frequent and more occupied with details of production. Moreover, partkoms' economic interventions became oriented primarily toward development and guidance through the restructuring of productive relationships, introducing new products and technology, and planning.

Bolshevising Irish communism: the Communist International and the formation of the Revolutionary Workers’ Groups, 1927–31

2003 ◽  
Vol 33 (132) ◽  
pp. 452-469
Author(s):  
Emmet O’Connor
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Executive Committee ◽  
National Level ◽  
Global Context ◽  
Democratic Centralism ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Anglophone World ◽  
At Home

During the 1920s the Communist International, or Comintern, attached exceptional importance to Ireland for the potential of its anti-imperialist forces to foment revolution at home, enlist the Irish diaspora, and encourage unrest in Britain and the Empire. In this way the Comintern might strengthen its relatively feeble bridgehead in the anglophone world and embarrass Britain, the keystone of Russia’s enemies. However, the Comintern encountered repeated frustration in attempting to direct its Irish sections until 1929 when it approved an initiative to create a Bolshevised party. At national level, Bolshevisation meant the application of the Leninist principles of unity, discipline and democratic centralism. Crucially, Bolsheviks understood their national sections to belong to a world party directed by the Executive Committee of the Communist International (E.C.C.I.) in Moscow. In the global context, it also meant the subordination of the Comintern to the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (V.K.P./b.), as the Soviet party was called, and the interests of the Soviet Union. Both levels of Bolshevisation went hand in hand in Ireland, where a new party was built from scratch between 1929 and 1933.

Vanguard of the Revolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. James McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
North Korea ◽  
Karl Marx ◽  
Modern World ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Revolution

This book is a sweeping history of one of the most significant political institutions of the modern world. The communist party was a revolutionary idea long before its supporters came to power. The book argues that the rise and fall of communism can be understood only by taking into account the origins and evolution of this compelling idea. It shows how the leaders of parties in countries as diverse as the Soviet Union, China, Germany, Yugoslavia, Cuba, and North Korea adapted the original ideas of revolutionaries like Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin to profoundly different social and cultural settings. The book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand world communism and the captivating idea that gave it life.

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