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Red Sunset

The Failure of Soviet Politics

By: Philip G. Roeder

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Paperback | 3 January 1994

At a Glance

Paperback
336 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
25.4 x 19.6 x 254

Paperback

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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.

Industry Reviews

"This is fashionable political science theory applied to what will surely be one of the great social science puzzles of the twentieth century-why the Soviet system collapsed... Although the book's primary audience is in the universities, the general reader will gain insight into the ultimate weaknesses of the Soviet system and a good idea of how 'new institutionalism' stacks up as an explanation against traditional alternatives, particularly those stressing the importance of political culture."--Foreign Affairs

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You Can Find This Book In

Non-Fiction History Regional & National History European History Politics & Government Political Structure & Processes Constitution & The Government & The State Earliest Times to Present Day 20th Century History from 1900 to 2000 Post War 20th Century History after 1945 Political Ideologies & Movements Far-Left Political Ideologies & Movements

Military History Crimean War Specific Events & Topics in History Revolutions, Uprisings, Rebellions Russian Revolution

List of Figures	p. vii
List of Tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Why Did Soviet Bolshevism Fail?	p. 3
The Authoritarian Constitution	p. 22
Creating the Constitution of Bolshevism, 1917-1953	p. 41
Reciprocal Accountability, 1953-1986	p. 66
Balanced Leadership, 1953-1986	p. 94
Institutionalized Stagnation	p. 119
The Domestic Policy Spiral	p. 144
The Dialectics of Military Planning	p. 177
The Failure of Constitutional Reform, 1987-1991	p. 210
Can Authoritarian Institutions Survive?	p. 246
Notes	p. 255
Select Bibliography	p. 307
Index	p. 311
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.

Red Sunset

The Failure of Soviet Politics

At a Glance

Paperback

Industry Reviews

Shipping

How to return your order

Defective items

You Can Find This Book In

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