Interests and groups in Soviet policy‐making

THE debate as to whether interest group analysis of the Soviet political system is either legitimate or fruitful is only one facet of the general search for political universals to serve as cornerstones for comparative politics. The debate can trace its origins back at least as far as Gabriel Almond's report on research planning by the Committee on Comparative Politics of the US Social Science Research Council. Almond, criticizing the limitation of comparative analysis to formal institutions, which may fulfil very different functions in differing political systems, suggested that satisfactory comparative research 'must examine the interest group system in its relations with the social structure and culture on one hand and the other parts of the political structure on the other',l with the aim of facilitating differentiation between political systems as wholes. Although Almond's proposals do touch on analysis of Soviet and communist politics along with others,2 the paucity of such references is illustrative of the isolation in which political scientists dealing with the Soviet system worked at that time, an isolation fostered by the now largely abandoned belief that the Soviet totalitarian polity was truly sui generis and demanded specific and unique techniques of analysis. Though Almond himself soon became aware of this anomaly of research,3 it was not until 1966 that the question of investigating the existence of interest groups in Soviet politics was put forward in print and began to engage the efforts of researchers.4

Economic system · Economics · Policy making · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Soviet union · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Law · Political Influence and Corporate Strategies · Public Administration · Russia and Soviet political economy

• Interest Groups and Communist Politics Revisited

  Open Access•H Gordon Skilling•World Politics•1983

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• Committee Decision Making in the Soviet Union

  Open Access•Ellen Jones•World Politics•1984

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• Organizational Participation and Public Policy

  Open Access•Cyril E Black, Cyril Ε Black et al.•World Politics•1983

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• The Soviet Prefects

  Jerry F Hough•The Soviet Prefects•1969

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• Public Administration and the Public Interest

  Eric Herring, E Pendleton Herring•Harvard Law Review•1936

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• The new structure of Soviet agriculture

  Rudolf Schlesinger•Soviet Studies•1959

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• The reorganization of the MTS

  J Miller•Soviet Studies•1958

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• An Economic History of the USSR

  Gregory Grossman, Alec Nove•The Russian Review•1970

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• Interest Groups in Soviet Politics

  Mark B Garrison, Mark Garrison et al.•The Russian Review•1971

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• Interest Group Theory in Political Research

  Open Access•Oliver Garceau•The Annals of the American…•1958

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• Interest Groups and Communist Politics

  Open Access•H Gordon Skilling•World Politics•1966

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• Soviet Interest Groups and the Policy Process

  Open Access•Philip D Stewart•World Politics•1969

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• Interest Groups in the USSR

  Donald R Kelley•The Journal of Politics•1972

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• Political Participation in Communist China

  Derek J Waller, James R Townsend•British Journal of Sociology•1967

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• Group Influence and the Policy Process in the Soviet Union

  Open Access•Joel J Schwartz, Joel Schwartz et al.•American Political Science Review•1968

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• A Comparative Study of Interest Groups and the Political Process

  Open Access•Gabriel A Almond•American Political Science Review•1958

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• Conflict and Decision-Making in Soviet Russia

  Sidney I Plo, Sidney I Ploss•Conflict and Decision-Making in…•1965

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