Conclusion: Party and People in Communist Systems

Abstract

Studies of communist politics have differed from analyses of other systems because of an almost exclusive focus on the top institutions and their occupants. Political scientists whose emphasis is American politics do, of course, study the Presidency, Congress and the Supreme Court — but there have also been decades of study of American political behavior (voting and public opinion, for example), public administration and policy analysis, and many other newer fields. Studies of domestic politics in the USSR and other communist states, however, continue to look at ‘leadership’ long after Kremlinology had its heyday.

… the more disciplined and united the members of the party are, the more problematic becomes their relations to the people at large. The more the party seeks to develop among the people a consciousness and commitment which they do not possess, the greater will be the distance between party and people.

Reinhard Bendix (1974, pp. 209–10)