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After the August Revolution, What Next?
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19624 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1991 |
1,306 Words |
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S. Robert Lichter and Linda S. Lichter direct the Center for
Media and Public Affairs, a nonprofit media watchdog group in
Washington, D.C. Stanley Rothman is a professor of government
at Smith College, where he directs the Center for the Study of
Social and Political Change. |
THE WORLD & I: How irreversible is the August revolution?
Henry Gordon: The sooner Yeltsin removes the old bureaucrats from local levels, the more successful reform can be. As far as it being irreversible, I don't think so.
W&I: What effect will the remaining hard-liners within the bureaucracy have on the future of Soviet reforms?
Gordon: It is hard to assess the threat. They are there. And they will retreat to the cellar. They will not stand up and say we are against this or that. But when special regulations come from the Russian government to the provinces, they will do their best to stop the Russian influence.
Igor Oleynik: I was not in the bureaucracy, but I was very close to it. I never thought democracy could emerge from Soviet market reforms. Bureaucrats are not interested in market reforms. They will do whatever to survive. This is their profession. But the same people, several years ago, were the most flexible people. In areas of privatization, for example, property will be transferred to private companies, but the bureaucrats will become the shareholders. And then they will operate in the same way.
James Millar: First, the people went to the barricades to defend democracy and freedom, not the market economy which offers an uncertain future. Insofar as they know about the market economy, it is very frightening. But since this happened in Eastern Europe such as Poland and Czechoslovakia, they ran the party out completely. In other places such as Bulgaria and Romania, the party made some changes itself. I would guess that in different republics and different regions some people would be able to insinuate themselves into the new reforms and in other places the people will just run them out. That will be very complex. The resistance to economic reform is not just a question of bureaucrats, it is really for everyone. Anyone who surveys what Soviets want knows their expectations are up. Everyone wants K-mart in Moscow, but when you talk about raising prices or losing entitlements like health care, subsidized education, goods, then people are not anxious to lose those. Some people will be better off after reforms, but some will be worse off. It depends on how one compensates that. Here is an opportunity for the leadership to educate the population about what the market will bring, but even Yeltsin is not really ready to tell people about the costs of reform. That is the real test of the new
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