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The Soviet Economic System: An Archival Re-evaluation

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Abstract

This chapter surveys the Soviet economic system beginning with accounts of scientific planning by an enlightened Politburo. Contributions by Kornai, Berliner, and Granick from the 1950s provided the first accounts of the dysfunctionalities of enterprises. The opening of the Soviet archives offered the first insider accounts of planning in practice, of a leadership torn by vested interests, coordinated not by plans but by “resource mobility” and “petty tutelage.” Enterprise gross output targets had to be fulfilled “at any price.” Just about any superior could change the plan, which was never finalized. Managers and planners were loath to deviate from the “achieved level” irrespective of changes in tastes and technology. “Scientific planning” froze the economy in place, while market economies created new technologies and new products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Hoover Institution of Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Paul R. Gregory

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  1. Paul R. Gregory
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Correspondence to Paul R. Gregory .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, London, UK

    Elodie Douarin

  2. Carleton University, Ottawa, ON, Canada

    Oleh Havrylyshyn

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Gregory, P.R. (2021). The Soviet Economic System: An Archival Re-evaluation. In: Douarin, E., Havrylyshyn, O. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Comparative Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50888-3_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50888-3_3

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-50887-6

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