An Algebra of Soviet Power: Elite Circulation in the Belorussian Republic 1966-86 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies) [Hardcover]

Michael E. Urban (Author)

Book Description

Series: Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies | Publication Date: November 24, 1989

The control of office has long been regarded as the key to understanding power and policy in the Soviet system. What, however, accounts for this control of office? Numerous conventional studies have addressed this question by focusing on the individuals who make up the Soviet elite at one time or another. This book adopts a different perspective by treating the personnel system itself as a set of power relations that govern the mobility of the individuals within it. Using the Belorussian Republic as the site of the investigation, the author analyzes the movements of individuals as sequences of complex interrelations structured by the system. He demonstrates how regionalism has played an important role and patronage the decisive role in shaping the patterns of elite circulation in Belorussia, and outlines changes in these same patterns following the advent of the Gorbachev leadership, changes that were anticipated in some respects by events in Belorussia.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Control of office has long been regarded as the key element in understanding power and policy in the Soviet system. What, however, accounts for the control of office and how are individuals recruited into positions of power and responsibility? In An Algebra of Soviet Power, Michael Urban adopts a fresh approach and introduces into the field of political elite studies the sociological technique of vacancy chain analysis.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press (November 24, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521372569
• ISBN-13: 978-0521372565
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,317,982 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Number crunching in Belorussia, September 12, 2000

By 

J. Hart (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Algebra of Soviet Power: Elite Circulation in the Belorussian Republic 1966-86 (Cambridge Russian, Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies) (Hardcover)

Urban collected and processed a lot of data for this book, and I have to give him credit for that, for sure. His objective is to create a rigid, mathematically based methodology for studying the movements in the Soviet bureaucracy, which by no means acted as a conventional bureaucracy, despite many scholars' attempts to analyze it as such. Looking at Belorussia, he gathered data for office vacancies and mobility for twenty years, and plugged them into his "algebra" to calculate probabilities of office-holders coming from particular areas of the bureaucracy, looking for patterns. In this, he is quite thorough, and one really cannot doubt the extent and factuality of his research (although it doesn't make for easy reading).

His analysis, on the other hand, does not come out as solidly as his data collection. Not that what he says did not hold true for the Belorussian republic, but he resists making generalizations from it, extending it to the soviet system as a whole. He also, in considering factionalism in Belorussia (actually one of the strongest sections of the book) does tend to drop back into the subjective mode of analysis that he decries in the book's introduction.

This is not an easy book to read. A strong backing in statistics, some higher math, and a good working knowledge of Russia between Brezhnev and Gorbachev is almost necessary. But with all its faults aside, Urban has created a useful methodology for study of the movements of power in the late soviet period.