THE USSR'S EMERGING MULTIPARTY SYSTEM by Vera Tolz, S.Frederick Starr (Foreword) ( 9780275938383 )

Item Details

Title:

THE USSR'S EMERGING MULTIPARTY SYSTEM

By:

Format:

Hardback

List price:	£58.00
We currently do not stock this item, please contact the publisher directly for further information.

ISBN 10:

0275938387

ISBN 13:

9780275938383

Publisher:

ABC-CLIO

Pub. date:

26 November, 1990

Series:

The Washington Papers No. 148.

Pages:

144

Description:

A study of unofficial movements in the USSR and their effect on the Soviet political system. Since 1987 the role of these groups has been expanding, starting to pose a threat to the power of the Communist party, and causing a multiparty system to emerge in the Soviet Union.

Synopsis:

Throughout the history of the USSR, groups of like-minded people have gathered, without official permission, to discuss issues of common interest. They had their predecessors in prerevolutionary voluntary associations and political parties. During the 1960s it became easier and less dangerous than in the previous period of Stalin's rule to engage in activities outside government control. Indeed, since the de-Stalinization campaign in the 1950s, Soviet society has been slowly asserting its independence, at least in areas nominally nonpolitical. Nevertheless, until Gorbachev's drive for liberalization achieved some momentum, the creation of unsanctioned groups often continued to provoke persecution of their members. In this book, Vera Tolz studies these unsanctioned groups and reveals the effect they are having on the Soviet political system. In 1990, primarily because of pressure from these unofficial movements, the Communist party was forced to relinquish its constitutionally guaranteed monopoly on power. In other words, a multiparty system had emerged in the USSR by the end of the period under observation in this book.From the time that voluntary associations of Soviet people were permitted to emerge from the underground and openly participate in official public life (1987), their role in the political and social life of the country has been rapidly expanding. By 1989, new sociopolitical groups, especially in the Baltic republics and Transcaucasia, started to pose not only a challenge but also a threat to the power of the Communist party. The emergence of a multiparty system in the Soviet Union, with various political groups pursuing different--and at times opposing--goals, is coinciding with a period during which the central authorities are being inconsistent in implementing democratic reforms. Representatives of new movements are often politically inexperienced, and the Communist party is facing a serious crisis, which makes the political situation in the Soviet Union highly unpredictable and highlights the difficulties that the country faces in moving toward a more democratic system

Publication:

Imprint:

Praeger Publishers Inc

Returns:

Non-returnable

Some other items by this author:

AGAINST OUVERTURE AND EACH OTHER (PB)

CIVIL SOCIETY IN CENTRAL ASIA (PB)

CO-ORDINATING COLD WAR PROPAGANDA (PB)

ELIE KEDOURIE, AND THE CAPTURE OF DAMASCUS, 1ST OCTOBER 1918 (PB)

EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIZATION SINCE 1800

EUROPEAN DEMOCRATIZATION SINCE 1800 (HB)