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Interest Groups and Communist Politics Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 June 2011

H. Gordon Skilling
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto.
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Abstract

Empirical research has demonstrated the utility of an interest group approach for the study of Soviet politics, as well as for interpreting the politics of tsarist Russia and Eastern European communist systems and the dissident movements. The flowering of group activity in Poland and Czechoslovakia at certain times and the activity of dissent movements show, however, the rudimentary character of “normal” interest groups in the Soviet Union and elsewhere. Although the Soviet system has changed since Stalin's death, it remains fundamentally authoritarian in character. The use of models, such as totalitarian, authoritarian, bureaucratic, corporatist, and pluralist, hinders rather than facilitates an understanding of Soviet politics and of the place of interest groups in that system.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Trustees of Princeton University 1983

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References

1 Gordon Skilling, H., “Interest Groups and Communist Politics,” World Politics 18 (April 1966), 435–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gordon Skilling, H. and Griffiths, Franklyn, eds., Interest Groups in Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971).Google Scholar

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7 Garson (fn. 3), 153–54; see also pp. 96, 138.

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16 Garson (fn. 3), 110, 177.

17 Note, for instance, the continuing use of the concepts of interests and groups by critics of Bentley,—e.g., Truman, Dahl, McConnell, and Lowi (Greenstone, fn. 8), 300.

18 Janos (fn. 5, 1979), 19; Truman (fn. 14), xxii-xxviii.

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21 Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 44–45, 335, 413.

22 Garson (fn. 3), 71.

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26 Hough (fn. 11), 187, 529; also Hough (fn. 10), 12.

27 Shtromas, , Political Change and Social Development: The Case of the Soviet Union (Frankfurt a/M: Peter Lang, 1981), 68.Google Scholar An earlier version of parts of this book was published as “Dissent and Political Change in the Soviet Union,” Studies in Comparative Communism 12 (Summer/Autumn 1979), 212–44; comments and rejoinder, ibid., 245–76.

28 Skilling, in Johnson (fn. 25), 22–28. For a positive appraisal of this classification, see Lowenthal, Richard, “On ‘Established’ Communist Party Regimes,” Studies in Comparative Communism 7 (Winter 1974), 337–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar, 344–45, 356; and Linz (fn. 23), 245, 277, 336–47.

29 See Skilling, , “Leadership and Group Conflict in Czechoslovakia,” in Barry Farrell, R., ed., Political Leadership in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union (Chicago: Aldine, 1970), 276–93Google Scholar, for an application of this typology to successive phases of communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

30 Salisbury (fn. 8), IV, 172–73.

31 Garson (fn. 3), 18–20, 120–21.

32 Skilling (fn. 5), 85.

33 Hough (fn. 10), 61. Hough even suggested that the Soviet system under Brezhnev was closer to the model of pluralism of Western political science than the American political system itself (ibid., 69; also 9–10).

34 Hough, , “The Soviet System: Petrification or Pluralism?Problems of Communism 22 (March-April 1972), 2829Google Scholar; see also Hough (fn. 10), 23.

35 Hough (fn. 34), 29, 42; (fn. 10), 24, 43–44. See Ehrlich, Stanislaw, Pluralism on and off Course (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1982), 204Google Scholar, 206. See also Solomon (fn. 2) for other discussions of the pluralist concept as applied to Soviet politics.

36 Cf. the “group interaction and organizational process model” advanced by Kelley, Donald R., “Group and Specialist Influence in Soviet Politics: In Search of a Theory,” in Remnek, Richard B., ed., Social Scientists and Policy Making in the USSR (New York and London: Praeger, 1977), chap. 5.Google Scholar

37 Hammer, , “Bureaucratic Pluralism,” mimeo (Moscow, 1979), 17.Google Scholar See also Hammer's earlier book, U.S.S.R.: The Politics of Oligarchy (Hinsdale, Ill.: Dryden, 1974), chap. 6.Google Scholar

38 Lazarev, , Sovetskoe gosudarstvo i pravo (No. 10, 1971), 86Google Scholar, 93; also Hammer (fn. 37, 1979), 10. Brezhnev himself defined the task of the CPSU as “accurately to take into account the interests of the whole nation, as well as the interests of the classes and social groups which make it up and to direct them in one general current” (Report to the 24th Congress, March 30, 1971), in Leninskym kursom; rechi a statya [The Leninist Course; Speeches and Articles] (Moscow: Izd. pol. literatury, 1972), III, 274–75; my translation.

39 Hough (fn. 11), 547; also Hough (fn. 10), 24.

40 Bunce, Valerie and Echols, John M. III, “Soviet Politics in the Brezhnev Era: ‘Pluralism’ or ‘Corporatism’?” in Kelley, Donald R., ed. Soviet Politics in the Brezhnev Era (New York: Praeger, 1980).Google Scholar

41 Garson (fn. 3), 47 ff., 70.

42 See Berger, Suzanne, ed., Organizing Interests in Western Europe: Pluralism, Corporatism, and the Transformation of Politics (New York and Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981)Google Scholar; also the Conference on Organizational Participation and Public Policy, Princeton University, September 1–2, 1981—especially Discussion Paper No. 1, by Black, Cyril E., “Organized Participation: Notes on the Literature”; Burke, John P., Organizational Participation and Public Policy: A Conference Report, Center of International Studies, Princeton University, Policy Memorandum No. 41 (Princeton, 1982).Google Scholar See also Black, Cyril E. and Burke, John P., “Organizational Participation and Public Policy,” World Politics 35 (April 1983), 393425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

43 Schmitter, , “Still the Century of Corporatism,” Review of Politics 36 (January 1974).CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also his introduction to a special issue on corporatism, and his contribution, “Modes of Interest Intermediation and Models of Societal Change in Western Europe,” in Comparative Political Studies 10 (April 1977), 3–6 and 7–38, respectively.

44 Full definitions are in Schmitter (fn. 43, 1974), 93–94, 96, 104, 97; also in Bunce and Echols (fn. 40).

45 Bunce and Echols (fn. 40), 18, 4.

46 Hough (fn. 2), 27. See also discussion of corporatism by A. H. Brown and others in Solomon (fn. 2).

47 Black, , “Organizational Participation in Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union,” paper presented to the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, Washington, D.C., October 1982, p. 9.Google Scholar See below for further discussion of interest groups in tsarist and Soviet Russia.

48 Dahl, , “Pluralism Revisited,” in Ehrlich, Stanislaw and Wootton, Graham, eds., Three Faces of Pluralism: Political, Ethnic and Religious (Farnborough, England: Gower, 1980), 27.Google Scholar

49 Furtak, Robert K., “Interessenpluralismus in den politischen Systemen Osteuropas,” Osteuropa 24 (November-December 1974), 779–92Google Scholar, esp. 790–91.

50 Ruble, , Soviet Trade Unions, Their Development in the 1970's (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

51 Bunce and Echols (fn. 40), 9–12. On the role of experts, see Brown (fn. 6), 74–76, 85–88.

52 Kirstein, in Meissner and Brunner, (fn. 4).

53 Solomon, Peter H. Jr, Soviet Criminologists and Criminal Policy: Specialists in Policy Making (New York: Columbia University Press, 1978)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Gustafson, Thane, Reform in Soviet Politics, Lessons of Recent Policies on Land and Water (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1981)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Löwenhardt, John, Decision Making in Soviet Politics (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1981).CrossRefGoogle Scholar See below for further discussion.

54 On the desirability of such case studies, see Brown (fn. 6), 73–74, 85–86. Articles by Stewart, P. D., Schwartz, J. J. and Keech, W. R., and Lodge, Milton, cited in Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 379Google Scholar, will not be discussed here.

55 Friedgut, , “Interests and Groups in Soviet Policy-making: the MTS Reforms,” Soviet Studies 28 (October 1976), 524–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

56 Kelley, , “Environmental Policy-making in the USSR: The Role of Industrial and Environmental Interest Groups,” Soviet Studies 28 (October 1976), 570–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar; emphasis in original.

57 Kelley, , “Interest Groups in the USSR: The Impact of Political Sensitivity on Group influence,” The Journal of Politics 34 (August 1972), 860–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58 Biddulph, , “The Public Articulation of Territorial Interests at CPSU Congresses,” (Victoria, B.C., 1982)Google Scholar, published as “Local Interest Articulation at CPSU Congresses,” World Politics 36 (October 1983), 28–52. Cf. Hough's analysis of speeches by regional party secretaries at the 23rd Congress in Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 65–66.

59 Solomon (fn. 53).

60 Gustafson (fn. 53).

61 Löwenhardt (fn. 53).

62 Workshop on Soviet Policymaking, University of California (Berkeley, June 19–20, 1980). Cf. the earlier volume by Remnek (fn. 36).

63 Solomon (fn. 53), 13.

64 Löwenhardt (fn. 53), 6, 25, 26.

65 Ibid., 86, 184–85.

66 Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 24–27, 384–87, 395; on tendency analysis, 342, 344, 352, 412. Hoffmann, Erik P. and Laird, Robbin F., in their study The Politics of Economic Modernization in the Soviet Union (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1982)Google Scholar, chap. 6, discern what they call “policy groups,” which combine the characteristics of Griffiths' “tendencies of articulation” with institutional interests. Their book focuses on the policy group of “economic modernizers,” a coalition that includes economic planners, planning theorists, managers, management theorists, and others who work in a variety of party, government, production, and academic institutions and share many views on the policies needed for economic modernization.

67 Meissner and Brunner (fn. 4).

68 Nolte (fn. 4).

69 Furtak (fn. 49).

70 Odom (fn. 5), 562–65.

71 Black, , “Political Participation: From Estates to Interest Groups,” paper presented at the American Historical Association, Washington, D.C., December 1980, pp. 2Google Scholar, 6.

72 Wortman, , “The Autocracy and the Interests, 1861–1905,” paper presented at the American Historical Association, Washington, D.C., December 1980, pp. 3Google Scholar, 11. Donald Treadgold and Richard Pipes have also written of interest groups in tsarist Russia; see Whetten (fn. 13), 25. See also, on the relationship of group interests and Russian despotism, Bentley (fn. 14), 335–37. Cf. my comments, and those of Janos, on this topic in Studies in Comparative Communism (fn. 5, 1980), 84, 90.

73 Black (fn. 47), 7.

74 Terry, , in Studies in Comparative Communism (fn. 5, 1979), 29.Google Scholar

75 For an earlier analysis of interest groups and opposition in Communist Eastern Europe, see Skilling, , “Background to the Study of Opposition in Communist East Europe,” Government and Opposition 3 (Summer 1968), 294324CrossRefGoogle Scholar; republished in Schapiro, Leonard, ed., Political Opposition in One-Party States (London: Macmillan, 1972), 72103Google Scholar, and in Dahl, Robert A., ed., Regimes and Oppositions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1973), 121–41.Google Scholar See also Brown, A. H., “Pluralistic Trends in Czechoslovakia,” Soviet Studies 17 (April 1966), 453–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

76 Skilling, , Czechoslovakia's Interrupted Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976), chap, XVIII, esp. pp. 563Google Scholar, 611. See also my forthcoming article, “Two Interrupted Revolutions,” a comparative analysis of the reform movements in 1968 and 1980–81, to be published in Poland in Crisis, Institute of Soviet and East European Studies, Carleton University (Ottawa, Canada, forthcoming).

77 I owe this idea and the term “proto-interest groups” to Robert C. Tucker of Princeton University, who read a draft of this article.

78 Skilling, , Studies in Comparative Communism (fn. 5), 87.Google Scholar

79 See my analysis of dissent in the Soviet Union, Poland, and Czechoslovakia in the final chapter of Skilling, , Charter 77 and Human Rights in Czechoslovakia (London: Allen & Unwin, 1981).Google Scholar

80 Shtromas (fn. 27), 74–77, 104.

81 Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 23.

82 Victor C. Falkenheim has adopted an interest group approach in a comprehensive symposium which he has edited, entitled Citizens and Groups in Chinese Politics (manuscript only). Referring to Interest Groups in Soviet Politics, Falkenheim writes that interest group approaches “have become virtually universal tools of analysis, reflecting, on the one hand, their almost unarguable indispensability in substantive policy analysis, and on the other, the increasingly salient character of group activity in modernizing socialist systems.” The manuscript focuses on “the role of social aggregates, professional groups and bureaucratic interest groups at the base and intermediate levels” of the Chinese political system, including, for instance, workers, peasants, and the youth, as well as scientists, intellectuals, managers, and the military, and explores the interactions between “social groups” and elite factions.”

83 Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 44.

84 Ibid.; see pp. cited in fn. 66.

85 Ibid., 45.

86 Ibid., 44; also 399, 401–05.

87 Shtromas (fn. 27, 1979), 221, 237–39, 272–73.

88 Skilling and Griffiths (fn. 1), 404, 405.

89 Skilling (fn. 25), 230, 234.