Gordian Knots
Administrative Hierarchies and Networks in the Soviet Union
Deutsche Fassung
Abstract
The phenomena of post-socialist informality, such as the shadow economy, clientelism or corruption, resulted from the specific structures and means of functioning that arose in socialist socialisation. Analysis of the Soviet Union shows that socialist society functioned along the lines of a decentralised centralisation of economic and social activities. This emerged as unofficial networks of relations within the complex hierarchies of the party-state apparatus formed. The increasing independence of these structures of interaction vis-à-vis the centre was a decisive factor in the collapse of the socialist social order.
(Osteuropa 10/2005, pp. 31–46)