LIMITATIONS OF PARTY CONTROL - THE GOVERNMENT BUREAUCRACY IN THE USSR

This paper demonstrates that the communist party, in terms of personne l, only Partially penetrated the government bureaucracy in the USSR. D etailed biographies of 212 members of the Soviet government of ministe rial status were analysed into four groups depending on their degree o f party work experience, and further analysed in terms of their partic ipation by type of ministry, including the military industrial complex , and by the time and tenure of appointment. Their life occupational h istories were plotted against their participation in different work se ctors. It is concluded that the recruitment of personnel to many of th e key sectors of the government bureaucracy appeared to be determined by the applicants previous experience and tenure in the bureaucracy. T he party was able to penetrate those government bodies concerned with ideology, coercion, and culture, but was not able to penetrate the eli te levels of those ministries with actual control over the means of pr oduction (the industrial ministries and the military industrial comple x). The research indicates that the government had a relative institut ional autonomy and great powers of self-recruitment and renewal, that the attempts by party leaders to control the bureaucracy failed, and t hat the relative autonomy of the government apparatus was an important contributing factor in the collapse of the communist state.