What led to the breakdown of the Soviet Union? Steven Solnick argues, contrary to most current literature, that the Soviet system did not fall victim to stalemate at the top or to a revolution from below, but rather to opportunism from within. In three case studies--on the Communist Youth League, the system of job assignments for university graduates, and military conscription--Solnick makes use of rich archival sources and interviews to tell the story from a new perspective, and to employ and test Western theories of the firm in the Soviet environment. He finds that even before Gorbachev, mechanisms for controlling bureaucrats in Soviet organizations were weak, allowing these individuals great latitude in their actions. Once reforms began, they translated this latitude into open insubordination by seizing the very organizational assets they were supposed to be managing. Thus, the Soviet system, Solnick argues, suffered the organizational equivalent of a colossal bank run. When the servants of the state stopped obeying orders from above, the state's fate was sealed.
By incorporating economic theories of institutions into a political theory of Soviet breakdown and collapse, Stealing the State offers a powerful and dynamic account of the most important international political event of the later twentieth century.
Introduction Objectives of This Book The Approach The Basic Argument Outline of the Book 1. Control and Collapse: Reformulating Traditional Approaches A Framework for Analyzing Institutional and Policy Change Power and Control in Soviet Institutions: "Traditional" Theories Summary 2. Control and Collapse: Neoinstitutional Approaches Neoinstitutional Approaches to Hierarchy Explaining Institutional Change Behavioral Theories: "What's So Neo about Neoinstitutionalism? Summary 3. Testing Theories of Institutional Change: The Soviet Youth Program A Strategy for Hypothesis Testing Comrades and Sons: Generational Conflict and Soviet Policy Summary 4. The Communist Youth League Background Institutional Dynamics within the Komsomol Crisis and Collapse of the All- Union Komsomol Summary 5. Job Assignments for University Graduates Background Institutional Dynamics of Raspredelenie The Collapse of the Job Assignments System Summary 6. Universal Military Service Background Institutional Dynamics of Conscription Policy Crisis and Breakdown of the Conscription System Summary 7. The Breakdown of Hierarchy: Comparative Perspectives Reviewing the Case Study Evidence Additional Manifestations of Soviet Institutional Breakdown Chinese Reforms: Successful Decentralization 8. Conclusions and Extensions: Control and Collapse in Hierarchies Hierarchical Control and Collapse in Non-Communist Environments After the Collapse: institutions in the Post-Communist States Appendix: Data Sources Notes Glossary and Abbreviations Index
