An Experiment in Competition: The 1987 Elections to the Local Soviets

Abstract

For western observers, one of the most striking policy shifts articulated by Mikhail S. Gorbachev since he became general secretary of the CPSU in March 1985 has been his insistence on greater democratization (demokratizatsiia) and self-government (samoupravlenie). In his speech to the Communist party's Central Committee on 28 January 1987 he explicitly identified “the many-sided development of democracy and selfgovernment“ as a key component of what he meant by the reconstruction (perestroika) of Soviet society. His speech to the plenum dealt in large part with this theme. In it, Gorbachev startled his audience both at home and abroad with proposals for the introduction of a degree of competitiveness in the elections of party leaders, state officials, and enterprise managers.

Dis&approval voting: a characterization

“…In 1987 the deputies elections were reorganized in the former Soviet Union. Under the new rule, 7 voters crossed off the names of those against whom they wished to vote (Hahn, 1988). The same rule is used in some Chinese village elections (Zhong and Chen, 2002).…”

La Resistibile Ascesa Della Rappresentanza Politica in Urss

“…Ancora nell' autunno del 1989, un autorevole politologo riformista, Feodor Burlatskii, prevedeva -e auspicava -«una democrazia socialista plupunto di partenza per l'analisi del processo di «democratizzazione» in Urss (Urban 1990;White 1990aWhite e 1990bChiesa 1990a;Massari 1990). , Concordano su questi punti i migliori studi empirici suI ruolo svolto in concreto dai soviet nel sistema politico sovietico, sia a livello centrale (Vannernan 1977;Minagawa 1985) che, soprattutto, locale (Friedgut 1979;Jacobs, a cura di, 1983;Hahn, 1988a). ralista in condizioni di monopartitismo» (intervista a «Moskovskaya Pravda», 23 settembre 1989, p. 3)6.…”

Rethinking the CPSU

“…13 The plenum's most direct result was a cautious experiment in the summer of 1987 by which a small number of constituencies was allowed a choice of candidate in local elections. 14 Gorbachev, however, also suggested that a party conference-the first for nearly 50 years-should be convened to consider the democratisation of the CPSU itself. The Central Committee meeting in July 1987 approved this proposal, and the conference itself convened in late June 1988. ls In his speech Gorbachev called for 'radical reform' of the political system, not just democratisation, and identified the 'ossified system of government, with its command-and-pressure mechanism', as the main obstacle to perestroika.…”