Academic-Bureaucratic Nexus

This chapter examines the careers and ideas of economists who were part of the reform technocracy during perestroika, and the ways in which they were mobilized in the process of economic reform. They belonged to a narrow circle of elite academic institutions and were part of this narrow academic-bureaucratic circle where different ideas of economic reform were nurtured through internal discussions and various reform activities during the 1970s and 1980s. These activities produced a common framework of understanding of the deficiencies of the Soviet economy and its management, which eventually became the basis for various decisions and policies of early perestroika. As we will see, contrary to popular narratives, these intellectuals and bureaucrats were not “liberals” who sought to Westernize and marketize the Soviet economy and society. We argue that this late Soviet technocracy produced a broad consensus on the course of reforms aimed at fixing the system of economic management in order to boost economic growth by encouraging technological innovation and creating incentives for more efficient work while remaining within the socialist choice.