Suchergebnisse

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been charged with the responsibility of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating information on the economy of the USSR. This review analyzes the quality of the CIA's research, compares it with academic Sovietology, and raises certain questions regarding the internal mechanisms of the agency. For obvious reasons, the inquiry is confined to the unclassified materials produced by the agency. Moreover, I will be reviewing only a selected proportion of the published materials. The sheer volume is overwhelming: a request for publications produced a box weighing forty pounds. While my general comments refer to older materials, I will be concentrating on the most recent publications. The number of publications and variety of subject matter prohibit a traditional review article. Consequently, I intend an overall and much more general evaluation of research by the CIA.

Soviet women have the highest labor force participation rate in the world and are crucial to the Soviet economy. This article attempts to assess whether the Soviet leadership will be able to maintain this high rate of labor force participation over the next quarter of a century.; The general approach is to make both the case for and against the potential decline in female labor force activity. Arguments favoring a decline are that: (1) women will become frustrated because they work in the lowest paying and relatively less desirable areas of the economy; (2) a high percentage of women express dissatisfaction with their jobs; (3) the work day is considered too long, especially in respect to the obligations to care for children. Part-time work is considered highly desirable; (4) women bear a disproportionate burden of child and home care responsibility with an inadequate amount of preschool facilites.; The case for maintenance of the present level offemale activity is that: (1) there is no evidence that acquisitive expectations will not accompany rising Soviet incomes; (2) there is a high correlation historically between the percentage of Soviet women who work and the level of educational attainment, and the latter is now quite high; (3) the evidence from the other industrialized nations of the world is that rising national affluence does not per se cause women to reduce their work activity; (4) declining birth rates increase the convenience of being employed.; The author concludes that the likelihood of a decline in Soviet female labor force participation is small.

When the Communist Party took power in Rumania in 1944, it inherited a poor, agrarian society. In 1950, before the advent of planning, three-fourths of Rumania's labor force was still in agriculture; only 12 percent of the labor force was in the industrial sector. Per capita income for the country as a whole was the equivalent of thirty dollars and in agriculture it was close to twenty dollars. The new regime did not have to search very far for a general development model. It adopted the Soviet strategy of rapid economic growth through the priority development of heavy industry. Women have played a key role in this process; indeed, it may be argued that they form the linchpin of Rumanian growth strategy.

Die Autoren informieren über die Erfolge, Probleme und Perspektiven der Entwicklung im privaten Wirtschaftssektor (= "individuelle Wirtschaftstätigkeit" und "neue Genossenschaften") der Sowjetunion seit Inkrafttreten des Gesetzes über die individuelle Arbeitstätigkeit (1. Mai 1987) resp. die Verabschiedung des Genossenschaftsgesetzes (26. Mai 1988). Während die Politik der Stimulierung der privaten Initiative bereits in der Anfangsphase zu einer spürbaren Verbesserung des Angebots an Konsumgütern und Dienstleistungen führte - verbunden allerdings mit wesentlich höheren Preisen als im Staatssektors - und die Öffentlichkeit durchweg positiv auf diese Entwicklung reagierte, sieht sich der Privatsektor der Wirtschaft in letzter Zeit einer zunehmend restriktiven Gesetzgebung, einer massiven Kritik der Öffentlichkeit sowie einer erheblichen steuerlichen Belastung ausgesetzt. (BIOst-klk)

Evolution over the last three years; recent restrictions. Includes discussion of popular attitudes toward the cooperatives.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Introduction -- Organizations and Hierarchies: The Perennial Search for Solutions -- Gorbachev's Reform Program: "Radical" or More of the Same? -- Soviet Economic Reform: An Analysis and a Model -- Hierarchical Reform in the Soviet Economy: The Case of Agriculture -- Restructuring and "Radical Reform": The Articulation of Investment Demand -- Economic Reform and Industrial Performance in the Soviet Union: 1950-1984 -- The Impact of Soviet Economic Reform: Evidence from the Soviet Interview Project -- About the Editors.