Regional input into centralized economic planning: The case of Soviet Central Asia

✍ Scribed by Terese S. Zimmer

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1006 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0032-2687
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00136716

✦ Synopsis

This article uses the case of the Soviet Union to demonstrate that in centrally planned economies there remain both incentives and channels for regional administrators to express local interests to the center and have these interests reflected in national policy decisions. Debate over future economic development in Soviet Central Asia is fascinating in what it reveals concerning the nature of center-periphery relations in the USSR and the limitations these relations impose on centrally planned economies. The debate shows that even in a system which so highly values centralized economic planning, regional planners often give priority to local over national economic needs in their policy proposals and are able to affect policy decisions made in Moscow. The findings are relevant to all centrally planned economies and must be considered in any evaluation of this economic model.