Socialist Democracy: Politico-Economic Aspects

Until very recently, economic management relations in works by Soviet economists purporting to be politico-economic in nature have boiled down to the distribution of authority and functions within the framework of the management apparatus, including the enterprise administration. Various levels and organs of the apparatus are the subjects of these relations, while the structure of the object of managementâreproductionâtakes on a purely economic image irrespective of the social-class nature of the economic forms. Such a vision is a reflection of the realities and tasks of the barrack-like [>i>kazarmennaia>/i>] deformation of society that is characterized by the standardization of forms of economic management, the monopolization of power and management by a special caste (the so-called nomenklatura), and by the alienation of the majority of the people from power and management. The barrack-like-deformed social system relates to the average person and worker primarily and predominantly as a production resource, as a factor of production and relates to his labor as a component part of the technological production process. Science that serves the needs of the barrack-like system also relates in precisely the same way to the working person [>i>trudiashchiisia>/i>].

The Development of a Socialist Attitude Toward Work

Social and labor relations are in the focus of both democratization and the radical economic reform. "Our hope for revolutionary purification and rebirth," M. S. Gorbachev has said, "consists in discovering socialism's enormous social resources through the activation of the individual and the human factor. As a result of restructuring, socialism can and should realize its potential to the fullest as a truly humanistic system that serves and elevates man.">sup>1>/sup> Scheduled changes in society require the careful substantiation of radical measures.