Citizens and Soviets

The focus of this paper is the processing of the Soviet citizen's demands by local authorities, with particular attention to participation of citizens in the social and political structures utilized and the place of these structures in the governing apparatus of Soviet cities and towns. Examination of these grass roots institutions and the conditions under which they operate may yield some measure of insight as to the nature of regime-citizen relations in the area of most frequent and intimate contact between them. The effectiveness with which local administrative bodies operate is, in many cases, the measure of the efficacy with which the great decisions taken at the apex of power are transmitted through the hierarchy and emerge as palpable outputs of policy at citizen level. Every Soviet student of public administration learns in the first pages of his textbook Lenin's dictum that practice in the localities is the test of the center's leadership.1 In addition, while a Soviet citizen's ability to translate his wants into demands which will be heard by the town soviet is no guarantee of his citizen competence vis-a-vis the Kremlin, the citizen can scarcely be expected to render enthusiastic support to the Soviet regime on the great issues of life if he must search in vain for a hearing on questions of daily existence. Although it is true that an individual's political socialization may be in great measure formed by public events which are part of the grand tapestry of history, much is still left to the realm of private experience, the many small happenings which make up the individual threads of daily life. This would seem particularly true in a changing society made up in large part of numerous disparate parochial and semiparochial elements,2 such as the Soviet Union seems to be. Our point of departure is the fact that the local soviets, representing the administrative authority of the Soviet system, are the responsible agents for

Ivanovich · Political science · Regional science · Sociology · Eastern European Communism and Reforms · Soviet and Russian History

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