Basic Institutions of the Soviet-type Economy: (I) Administering the State Production Establishment

Abstract

To achieve the goals described in Chapter 1, the Soviet leaders designed a special kind of political and economic order. The central and most distinctive institution of this system is what I will call the state production establishment — a kind of supercorporation charged with running the economy, under unified management and for a centrally determined purpose. This corporation is closely integrated with two other structures — the state and the monopoly political party. The state production establishment is charged not simply with the job of production, but with production for goals set by the political leadership, and it is able to use all the instruments of state power, as well as economic instruments, to serve this purpose.