Soviet Economy Brink of Reform

270 Pages·1988·7.769 MB·English

by  P. Wiles

The Soviet Economy on
the Brink of Reform
Essays in honor of Alec Nove
Edited by
Peter Wiles
The Soviet Economy
on the
Brink of Reform
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The Soviet Economy
on the
Brink of Reform
Essays in Honor of Alec Nove
Edited by
Peter Wiles
London School of Economics and Political Science
Routledge
Taylor & Francis Group
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published in 1988 by Unwin Hyman Ltd
Published 2013 by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon 0X14 4RN
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© Unwin Hyman, 1988
All rights reserved. No pari of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform
Includes index.
1. Central planning—Soviet Union. 2. Soviet Union— Economic Policy—
1917- . 3. Saving and investment—Soviet Union. 4. Nove, Alee, 1. Nove,
Alec. II. Wiles, Peter John De la Fosse.
HC33S.C626 1988 338.947 87-19514
ISBN 978-0-04-335063-8
ISBN 978-0-043-35063-8 (hbk)
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
The Soviet Economy on the Brink of Reform
essays in honor of Alec Nove.
1. Investments---------Government policy---------Soviet Union---------History
---------20th century
I. Wiles, P.J. D. II. Nove, Alec
332.6'7252'0947 HG1572
Contents
List of Contributors ix
Preface: Peter Wiles xi
1 Leon Trotsky on the Dialectics of Democratic Control
Richard B. Day 1
2 Soviet Investment Criteria: A Prefatory Note Peter Wiles 37
3 The Allocation of Investment in the Soviet Union: Criteria for
the Efficiency of Investment Janice Giffen 44
4 The Soviet 1969 Standard Methodology for Investment Allocation
versus ‘Universally Correct’ Methods Frank A. Durgin 61
5 Intra-year Fluctuations in Production and Sales: East and West
J. Rostowski and P. Auerbach 82
6 Assessing the CIA’s ‘Soviet Economic Indices’ Lev Navrozov 112
7 Navrozov versus the Agency Philip Hanson 153
8 A Tonsorial View of the Soviet Second Economy Gregory Grossman 165
9 Soviet Agriculture: A Brighter Prospect? Karl-Eugen Wadekin 193
10 Economic Policies under Andropov and Chernenko (November
1982-Februaiy 1984-March 1985) Peter Wiles 217
Index 251
vii
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List of Contributors
Richard B. Day Professor of Political Science, University of Toronto in
Mississauga
Frank A. Durgin Professor of Economics, University of Southern Maine
Janice Giffen Consultant and Trainer in Project Planning Techniques for
Developing Countries and Director of Studies (The Gambia) for the Universite
Cooperative Internationale
Gregory Grossman Professor of Economics, University of California, Berkeley1
Philip Hanson Professor of Stn.net Economics, University of Birmingham
Lev Navrozov Center for the Survival of Western Democracies
J. Rostowski and P. Auerbach Senior Lecturers of Economics and Politics,
Kingston Polytechnic
Karl-Eugen Wadekin Emeritus Professor of International and East European
Agrarian Policies, University of Giessen, FRG
Peter Wiles Professor of Economics, London School of Economics and Political
Science
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Preface
Among scholars, Alec Nove is the least scholarly and (so?) the most
productive and effective. ‘Least scholarly’? I do not mean that he is inaccurate,
that he gives false references, or reasons sloppily—but rather that ‘scholarly’ is
not necessarily a word of high praise. Alec Nove is able to pick out what is
important whether it is a blinding novelty or a simple piece of ancient wisdom;
pleased at all times to cut the cackle and delighted to see through whole
cloud-capped superstructures of theory as irrelevant, or even wrong in their
own terms. He has touched nothing he did not adorn, and he has touched a
great deal.
This is meant to be an encomium not a memoir. But there are important
personal habits that memoirs may miss. He has no study in his own house, nor
any evident need for a vast personal library. On the contrary, this least
scholarly of men girdles the earth with the latest copy of Ekonomika i
organizatsia promyshlennogo proizvodstva in his brief case, and writes his articles
and books on the backs of travel agents’ itineraries.
The product is, to repeat, not inaccurate or sloppy—merely a witness to
what talent and energy can accomplish.
Many Festschriften are collections of ‘tributes,’ not essays on the subject
matter. Such works express the writers’ feelings, but are not read. In the end,
they do little honor. Personal they may be, but the publisher, who, of
necessity, is also a major contributor, bears the consequences. Here then,
Alec, are included essays by younger people who know you better than you
know them, but have something of importance to say. Though Poland, Chile
and British Rail are missing we claim to have adequately covered your range.
In following this principle of selection, we intend a greater honor than that
conveyed by the ‘personal’ tribute: that of placing before you, in gratitude and
admiration, a work that we hope will actually be read, quoted and used.
Peter Wiles