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Policy Choices and Regional Equality among the Soviet Republics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2014

Jack Bielasiak
Jack Bielasiak*
Affiliation:
Indiana University
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Abstract

While socioeconomic equality and maximum economic growth have been the proclaimed aims of Soviet leaders, the simultaneous implementation of these goals is difficult. Analysis of budgets reveals that expenditures in economic categories vary significantly across Soviet republics, and decline little over time. The republics are substantially more equal in socio-cultural expenditures, and are becoming even more so with time. The level of urbanization accounts for a large share of the variance in the social budget but not the economic one. Policy decisions concerning the latter are likely subject to a process involving a variety of political, military and socioeconomic considerations that transcend both the equality and efficiency criteria. In contrast, the increasing parity among Soviet republics in the socio-cultural budget is closely related to the increasing urbanization of the republics at the lower end of the development scale. It appears that increasing regional equality in the Soviet Union may be achieved primarily through improvements in social opportunities, and not by means of direct redistribution of economic resources.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 74 , Issue 2 , June 1980 , pp. 394 - 405
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1980

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