THE POLITICAL ECONOMIC THOUGHT OF THE IDEOLOGICAL ELITE: THE SOVIET GOVERNING ELITE

Öz

The purpose of this study is to explore the political economy views of the Soviet elites. It is demonstrated that as the Soviet elite was able to maintain economic stability, the ideological structure was not challenged. In contrast to that, economic stagnation and relative decline of the Soviet Union caused de-legitimization of the conservative elite ideas. Thus, socialism had to be reinterpreted by new elite. To prove the argument, the paper constructs a theoretical framework for ideological elites. The constructed elite theories are applied to the political economic framework of the Soviet elite. The paper concludes that as the existing ideological interpretation becomes dysfunctional, the elite was replaced by another faction in the party. In other words, the Soviet elite sought to solve the economic problems within the party structure itself.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Soviet elite
• Soviet political economy
• elite theories

İDEOLOJİK ELİTİN POLİTİK EKONOMİ DÜŞÜNCESİ: SOVYET YÖNETİCİ ELİTİ

Öz

Bu çalışmanın amacı Sovyet elitlerinin politik ekonomi görüşlerini ortaya çıkarmaktır. Çalışmada Sovyet elitlerinin ekonomik istikrarı sağladığı sürece ideolojik yapının sorgulanmadığı gösterilmektedir. Buna karşılık ekonomik durgunluk ve Sovyetler Birliği’nin görece gerilemesi muhafazakâr elit düşüncelerinin meşruiyetinin kaybolmasına yol açmıştır. Dolayısıyla sosyalizm yeni elit tarafından yeniden yorumlanmıştır. Bu argümanı ispatlamak için ideolojik elitlerin teorik yapısı kurulmaktadır. Kurulan elit teorisi Sovyetler Birliğindeki elitlerine uygulanmaktır. Çalışma; mevcut elit ideolojisinin işlevsiz hale gelmesiyle birlikte parti içindeki farklı bir fraksiyonun onun yerini aldığı sonucuna ulaşmaktadır. Bir başka deyişle, Sovyet eliti ekonomik sorunları parti yapısının içinde çözmeye çalışmıştır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Sovyet Elitleri
• Sovyet Politik Ekonomisi
• Elit Teorileri

Kaynakça

1. Bean, J.J. (1997), "Nikolai Bukharin and the New Economic Policy: A Middle Way?", The Independent Review, 2(1), 79–97.
2. Bernholz, P. (2015), "Legitimation, Co-Optation, and Repression in Ideocracies: A rational Choice Perspective", in U. Backes & S. Kailitz (eds.), Ideocracies in Comparison: Legitimation, Cooptation, Repression, London: Routledge, 69-87.
3. Brooker, P. (1995), Twentieth-Century Dictatorships: The Ideological one-Party States, Basingstoke: Macmillan.
4. Brooker, P. (2014), Non-Democratic Regimes (Third edition), Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan.
5. Brovkin, V. (1982), "The Mensheviks and NEP Society in Russia", Russian History, 9(2/3), 347–377.
6. Burton, M., J. Higley (2001), "The Study of Political Elite Transformations", International Review of Sociology, 11(2), 181–199. https://doi.org/10.1080/713674040
7. Charemza, W.W., J. Kiraly (1990), "Plans and Exogeneity: The Genetic-Teleological Dispute Revisited", Oxford Economic Papers, 42(3), 562–573.
8. Dix, R.H. (1982), "The Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes", The Western Political Quarterly, 35(4), 554. https://doi.org/10.2307/447341

9. Easter, G. (2000), Reconstructing the State: Personal Networks and Elite Identity in Soviet Russia, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
10. Easterly, W., S. Fischer (1995), The Soviet Economic Decline (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 1284), Washington, D.C.
11. Gaman-Golutvina, O. (2008), "Changes in Elite Patterns", Europe-Asia Studies, 60(6), 1033–1050. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130802180967
12. Geddes, B., J. Wright, E. Frantz (2014), "Autocratic Breakdown and Regime Transitions: A New Data Set", Perspectives on Politics, 12(2), 313–331. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592714000851
13. Gosplan (1986), USSR in Numbers in 1985, Moscow. Hanley, E., N. Yershova, R. Anderson (1995), "Russia - Old Wine in a New Bottle? The Circulation and Reproduction of Russian Elites,1983-1993", Theory and Society, 24(5), 639–668.
14. Hanson, P. (2003), The Rise and fall of the Soviet Economy: An Economic History of the USSR from 1945, London: Longman.
15. Higley, J., M.G. Burton (2006), Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy, Lanham, Md., Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
16. Hill, F., C.G. Gaddy, (2003), The Siberian Curse: How Communist Planners left Russia out in the Cold, Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.
17. Kenez, P. (2006), A history of the Soviet Union from the beginning to the end (2nd ed.), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
18. Khanin, G. I. (2003), "The 1950s: The Triumph of the Soviet Economy", Europe-Asia Studies, 55(8), 1187–1211.
19. Lenin, V.I. (1919), “Left-Wing” Childishness Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1918/may/09.htm
20. Lodge, M. (1968), "Soviet Elite Participatory Attitudes in the Post-Stalin Period", American Political Science Review, 62(3), 827–839, https://doi.org/10.2307/1953433
21. Mawdsley, E., S. (White2000), "The Soviet Elite from Lenin to Gorbachev: The Central Committee and its members, 1917-1991", Oxford: Oxford University Press.
22. McCauley, M. (2008), "The rise and fall of the Soviet Union", Harlow, England, New York: Longman.
23. Mearsheimer, J.J. (2001), The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, New York, London: W.W. Norton.
24. Moltz, J.C. (1993), "Divergent Learning and the Failed Politics of Soviet Economic Reform", World Politics, 45(2), 301–325. https://doi.org/10.2307/2950661
25. Nove, A. (1992a), An Economic History of the USSR, 1917-1991 (3rd ed.), London: Penguin Books.
26. Nove, A. (1992b), Stalinism and after: The road to Gorbachev, London: Routledge.
27. O’Brien, T. (2016), "Shifting Patterns of Governance in Authoritarian Regimes", Australian Journal of Political Science, 52(2), 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2017.1300872
28. Ofer, G. (1987), "Soviet Economic Growth: 1928-1985", Journal of Economic Literature, 25(4), 1767–1833.
29. Pakulski, J., J. Higley (1999), "Elite Power Games and Democratic Consolidation in Central and Eastern Europe", The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review, 26(1), 115–137. https://doi.org/10.1163/187633299X00057
30. Prybyla, J.S. (1972), "The Soviet Economy: An Overview", Current History, 63(374), 175–180.
31. Rosefielde, S. (2005), Russia in the 21st century: The Prodigal Superpower, Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
32. Sakwa, R. (1999), The Rise and fall of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991, London: Routledge.
33. Service, R. (2003), A history of modern Russia from Nicholas II to Vladimir Putin: From Nicholas II to Putin, Cambridge Mass.: Harvard University Press.
34. Smirnov, S. (2015), "Economic Fluctuations in Russia (from the late 1920s to 2015)", Russian Journal of Economics, 1(2), 130–153, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ruje.2015.11.002
35. Smith, J. (2005), The fall of Soviet Communism 1985-91, Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
36. Soest, C. von, J. Grauvoge (2017), "Identity, Procedures and Performance: How Authoritarian Regimes Legitimize their Rule", Contemporary Politics, 23(3), 287–305, https://doi.org/10.1080/13569775.2017.1304319
37. Sutela, P. (1991), Economic Thought and Economic Reform in the Soviet Union (Vol. 5), Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press.
38. Tessendorf, M. (1987), "The Changing Soviet Elite", Proceedings of the Academy of Political Science, 36(4), 32–41, https://doi.org/10.2307/1173831
39. Trotsky, L. (1923), The New Course, Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1923/newcourse/index.htm
40. Trotsky, L. (1928), Crisis in the Right-Center Bloc – I. Retrieved from https://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/1928/11/crisis1.htm
41. Ulfelder, J. (2016), "Contentious Collective Action and the Breakdown of Authoritarian Regimes", International Political Science Review, 26(3), 311–334, https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512105053786
42. Zweynert, J. (2006), "Economic Ideas and Institutional Change: Evidence from Soviet Economic Debates 1987–1991", Europe-Asia Studies, 58(2), 169–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668130500481303