Gorbachev's gamble

...The June conference marked a watershed in Gorbachev's efforts to reconstruct the Soviet system...

...At some point before his February speech, Gorbachev seems to have concluded that economic reconstruction without a comprehensive reform of the political system would be impossible...

...The answer may be related to the implementation of the reform of the political system outlined at the Nineteenth Party Conference in June...

...This in turn meant replacing those who put them there, not only at the top, but locally as well...

...Singled out as the source of resistance to the reforms were those in the state bureaucracy and party apparatus who stood to lose the most from changes in the status quo...

...Such personnel may no longer hold elected office simultaneously...

...To understand the importance of the changes at the top, we need to better understand what is happening at the bottom...

...The focus of reform shifted from economics to politics...

...SOVIET REFORM GORBACHEV'S GAMBLE VOTING OUT THE FOOT DRAGGERS Mikhail Gorbachev's dramatic power play at the top of the Communist party hierarchy in late September left at least one question unanswered: Why did he do it so sudden-ly...

...Once elected, deputies will choose their executive officers from among more than one candidate and by secret ballot...

...Real reform would require a reduction in the party's role...

...The answer depends on who will head the party organizations from below...

...He is the author of Soviet Grassroots: Citizen Participation in Local Government (Princeton...

...Not surprisingly, he has actively campaigned for those policies, suggesting, none too subtly, that length of service ought not to be a criterion favoring re-election...

...In addition to lowering the members of the party "apparent" by more than a third, he would curb their control over patronage and "demarcate" the functions of party and state organizations...

...On the other hand, Gorbachev's proposal that the first secretary of the party be automatically nominated as the chairman of the new, permanently functioning legislative body seemed to contradict his efforts at ending party interference in governmental affairs...

...Those sitting on the executive committee and holding administrative positions are overwhelmingly drawn from party ranks...

...What about the local party organizations...

...If bureaucracy is the disease, then a dose of democracy is to be the cure...

...As a result of decisions made at the Nineteenth Conference, these elections of party leaders are the most democratic in recent party history...

...In the context of the evolution of the Soviet political system over the past sixty years, the proposals considered (and, for the most part, adopted) at the Nineteenth Conference were dramatic...

...The practice of nominating deputies according to pre-arranged norms established by the party will come to an end...

...Deputies are to be chosen in elections which will be contested and for which nominations are to be "unrestricted...

...These reforms are now at a critical juncture as foes and supporters of restructuring struggle to ensure that their candidates are elected to key positions at the grassroots level of Soviet politics...

...In this context, the elections currently underway in the primary party organizations, to be followed by elections to higher organs over the next two months, are pivotal...

...Competitive candidacies, nominations from below, secret balloting, and two-term limits have been instituted to ensure a degree of choice unthinkable even a year ago...

...By allying the leadership of the party with the elected legislative representatives, Gorbachev's aim is to increase the authority of the legislative councils in their struggle with the bureaucrats, and to shift the balance of power from the executive to the legislative institutions of government...

...Terms of office will be limited to two, five-year terms...

...Suffice it to say that all votes in the 1500-member Supreme Soviet since the 1930s have been unanimous...

...On the whole, the changes seemed less a purge of opposition losers than a house-cleaning of superannuated holdovers from the Brezhnev years, and a chance to consolidate power by replacing them with his own candidates...

...Generally speaking, the party's interference in governmental affairs has been so pervasive that most Western analysts have written off the possibility of meaningful governmental reform in the Soviet Union...

...Will Gorbachev's proposed reorganization of the government work...

...Normally, the local party chairman is a member of the executive committee, if not its chair...

...Moreover, both Ligachev and his purported ally, Victor Chebrikov, remain members of the Politburo albeit with new, less powerful portfolios...

...JEFFREY W. HAHN Jeffrey W. Hahn is a professor of political science at Villanova University...

...In this context, Gorbachev's consolidation of power at the top may come to be seen as the visible portion of a less dramatic, but perhaps more profound, struggle now going on below...

...The outcome may determine the fate of perestroika...

...This is precisely what Gorbachev has proposed...

...In theory, all executive and administrative personnel are appointed by and accountable to these elected representatives...

...As things stand now, the party has become the political handmaiden of the bureaucrats...

...For those at the local level who needed reassurance that they were backing the right man, Gorbachev's message was clear: Don't bet against me...

...Such a judgment may be premature...

...Potentially most important, each legislative body will choose from among its members a smaller group of elected representatives whose" full-time job it will be to monitor the work of the bureaucrats...

...While the possibility that his opponents had attempted a palace coup cannot be ruled out, the absence at the time of the man most likely to lead it, Yegor Ligachev, makes such an explanation unlikely...

...The reason is not hard to find...

...If those hostile to reform are elected, then the rest of Gorbachev's political reforms will be vitiated, the bureaucrats will breathe more easily, and the "footdragging" will continue...

...Gorbachev's gamble is that those now being elected at the grassroots level will be supporters of his reconstruction policies...

...In a speech to the Central Committee in February, the frustrated Soviet leader had made no secret of his impatience with the "footdragging" encountered in the implementation of the economic reform package adopted in June 1987...

...In practice, it is the other way round: the elected deputies have long been dominated by the bureaucrats, who, with the help of the party, have turned the meetings of these legislatures into a ritual for the ratification of decisions already made...

...The party holds the controlling hand in the nomination and election of deputies, thereby ensuring a compliant audience for executive decisions...

...However, to the extent that the elections are democratic, there is the risk of actually losing...

...If the fault lay with those doing the implementing, the remedy was clear: replace the foot draggers...

...But why the urgency...

...The most concrete changes concerned the elected legislative councils, known as Soviets, including the national parliament, the Supreme Soviet...

...Gorbachev proposes to change all this at each level of government by reasserting the authority of elected representatives over administrators...