On its publication in 1985, this book offered a fresh analysis of the problems faced by the Soviet economy by focussing on the key issues in the economic planning system. David Dyker considers the available options for reform during the 1980s and the most likely developments. Discussing the origins of the Soviet economic planning system and the theories which founded it, previous attempts to reform the organisational structure and the particular problem of agriculture, Dyker presents a picture of an increasingly bleak future for the Soviet economy. This is a comprehensive title written by a renowned expert on the Soviet economy, which will be of particular value to students and academics researching the political and economic development and history of the Soviet Union.

Although the Soviet Union's centrally planned economic system played a significant role in world economic growth and modernization, it ultimately failed to compete with market forms of economic organization. Despite unavailing efforts at reform, it has now been abandoned, as the republics of the former USSR move painfully toward the market. Robert W. Campbell, one of the most respected U.S. specialists on the economy of the former Soviet Union, probes the evolution, behavior, and fatal weaknesses of the Soviet administrative-command economy. His essays cover a broad set of perspectives--theoretical interpretation of the Soviet-type economy and the growth model that went with it, concrete analyses of individual sections and functions, evaluation of the microeconomics of Soviet decision making, and descriptions of attempts at institutional and doctrinal reforms. They provide instructive background on some of the biggest problems now facing the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as the monetary and fiscal collapse engendered by reform, the looming fuel and energy disaster, and the seemingly intractable task of transforming the military-industrial complex and integrating its resources into the civilian economy. Robert W. Campbell's outstanding work provides an indispensable resource for understanding what the Soviet economic system was and the problems it faced in the transition to the market model.

The ideas set forth in these pages matured in the authors mind during the early years of constructive communism in Petrograd. The communist government, intoxicated by its successes in the counter-revolution, had promised to deal promptly with all economic problems now that its hands where free to do so. It was at this moment of its greatest triumphs that the author put forward his contention that the system of Marxian communism, as then conceived, was-intrinsically unsound and must inevitably break down.

Planning in the Soviet Union compiles the result of M. Bernard’s two-month visit to the USSR in 1961, for the purpose of investigating regional planning on behalf of the French Government Planning Office. This compilation deals with the Soviet planning apparatus, including its organization and administration together with the reforms that have been at work since 1957, furnishing a broad outline of the many economic and social problems forming the essence of Soviet thinking and planning. This book provides a very clear picture of the complexity of problems involved, particularly with the USSR government battling with the concepts of centralization, decentralization, and in industry between a vertical and horizontal structure. The topics that include economic growth, investment, location of industry, transport, manpower, use of available local resources, and migration are discussed only in broad outline of the magnitude of problems in the Soviet economic system. The efficiency of investments, choice of criteria, problem of priorities, productivity in highly integrated units, rationalization, specialization, and cooperation are also deliberated in this selection. This publication is intended for the average informed reader, particularly those who are interested in administering the planning apparatus in the near future.

A Cornelia & Michael Bessie book.