Soviet Workers and and the Collapse of Perestroika is a comprehensive analysis of the role of labour policy in the development and ultimate collapse of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms. Drawing on a wide range of sources, Filtzer argues that initially perestroika was designed to modernize the Soviet economy while keeping the existing political and property relations of society intact, which required a thoroughgoing restructuring of the labour process within Soviet industry. When ultimately this policy failed, the regime in mid-1990 opted to move to a full-scale restoration of capitalism, a task which could not be fulfilled so long as the traditional work practices and work relations within industry remained unchanged. Filtzer argues that the collapse of the USSR has brought the solution to this problem no nearer, and that post-Soviet capitalism is rooted in corruption and speculation and cannot ensure long-term economic growth.
Rezensionen / Stimmen
"One may or may not share Filtzer's vision of a proletariat uniting society and forming collective bodies featuring worker self-management and political representation, but it is hard to see any other social force coming to the rescue. While the Marxist categories he employs have gone out of fashion among both Western and ex-Soviet social scientists, in his hands they retain a subtlety and depth that will be hard to match." Contemporary Sociology "...this lively, well-written book analyzes the role of labor policy during Gorbachev's reforms and painstakingly developes the reasons for their failure." B. B. Brown Jr., Choice
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Sprache
Verlagsort
Zielgruppe
Maße
Höhe: 235 mm
Breite: 157 mm
Dicke: 23 mm
Gewicht
ISBN-13
978-0-521-45292-2 (9780521452922)
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Schweitzer Klassifikation
Autor*in
University of East London
Introduction: the roots and limits of perestroika; 1. Attempts to create a labour market: employment, unemployment, and the labour shortage; 2. Economic incentives: the disintegration of the 1986 wage reform; 3. Political incentives: enterprise 'democratization' and the emergence of worker protests; 4. 'Market mechanisms' and the breakdown of economic regulation; 5. The labour process under perestroika I: the politcal economy of working conditions; 6. The labour process under perestroika II: the failure of restructuring; Conclusion: the demise of perestroika and the emergence of class conflict.
