However it is not possible to understand glasnost without reference being made to the Chernobyl disaster of April 1986. Whilst there is never a good time for a disaster of that scale to occur, for Gorbachev it could not have happened at a worse time. Just while he was carefully orchestrating the opening up of the Soviet media, an event happened to expose for all to see just how far the USSR had to come regards glasnost compared to the West. Chernobyl caught fire shortly after midnight on the 26th of April 1986. The first reports in the West began to emerge on the 28th, whilst the Soviet system moved to cover up the situation, and to pretend it never happened. It took nuclear clouds over Sweden and Finland to make the USSR reconsider its public story. Even then it was not until May the 2nd that the Soviets admitted an accident had happened, but they still played down its significance. From this point on, total secrecy within the Soviet regime was “out of fashion”.
Gorbachev also introduced mass electoral reform. This probably was the most risky of all of his reforms. Prior to this, the privilege of glasnost, and the economic reforms happening at pace, could have been stopped or even reversed is the state retained its monopoly on power. There had been elections before in Soviet politics, but they had been a farce. People were entitled to vote, however on the ballot form there was only one candidate for whom they were allowed to vote. Turnout was in the region of 99% and anybody who did not vote could expect a call from a party official the next day asking them why. One might ask why these elections even took place. The reason, at least to a large extent, is because the pre-election campaigns allowed the state to demonstrate its successes. In January 1987, the central committee launched the campaign to democratize the Soviet political system. Gorbachev wanted to change the existing system into a new one consisting of multi-candidate elections.
The first of these elections took place in June of the same year. It was a small experiment covering only a few soviets, and the elections covered only 4% of the 2 million or so elected deputies. For the first time in Soviet history, certain prominent figures lost an election. Prior to this point, the Supreme Soviet was the highest legislative body in the Soviet political system. However, times were changing and the 19th Party Conference approved a major reform of this body. It was to be replaced by a 2 chamber parliament. This would consist of 2 250 elected officials in the “Congress of People’s Deputies”. The second chamber would be chosen from the Congress of People’s Deputies, and would consist of 500 or so members. Unlike the majority of previous elections, there was a larger extent of contestability. Of the 2 250, 1 500 would be elected by the electorate in largely contestable elections.
But to what extent were these reforms, which were happening at pace, equate to democratization? The theoretically ‘perfect’ democratic system is one which is pluralist. A pluralist state is one in which the power is dispersed through out the population. No one group can dominate the political scene and make decisions that is not in the interest of the population as a whole. A pluralist state will avoid a tyrannical government in theory at least because of this dispersion of power, and because every individual has the power of a vote.
There are generally accepted to be seven institutional features of a pluralist state. These features are not black and white, for instance it is possible for one state to offer any one individual feature to a greater or lesser extent than another state. This does not mean one state is necessarily more or less pluralist than the other. These seven features are as follows:
- Free and fair elections.
- Elected officials.
- Inclusive suffrage, meaning all adults can vote.
- Right to run for office.
- Freedom of speech.
- Associational autonomy, meaning individuals are free to form and join any organisations they choose.
- Plurality of sources of information.
Elections in the USSR towards the late 1980’s were far more free and fair than at any stage before. People were able to choose between multiple candidates. In the new Congress of People’s Deputies 1 500 of the 2 250 seats were contested publicly. 750 seats were reserved for public organisations, and whilst this is not strictly pluralist it is not particularly different from the House of Lords in the UK political system. The changes in Soviet politics also meant there were more elected officials than at any time before, another key feature of pluralist states.
Suffrage for Soviet elections was largely inclusive. Chapter XI of the Soviet Constitutional laid down many of the rules for this, including Article 137, specifying women also have the vote on an equal footing to men. It is necessary to point out that this was a feature of Soviet politics well before Gorbachev came to power.
Freedom of speech, associational autonomy, and a plurality of sources of information all happened in the period of a couple of years. In June 1988 the XIX All Union Conference adopted a resolution on glasnost allowing freedom of expression and access to information. The law ‘On Mass Media’ was adapted in 1990 and eliminated censorship. Another law ‘On Public Associations’ passed in the same year formally allowed the formation of non-communist parties and groups.
There can be little argument that great steps were taken toward a democratic USSR during Gorbachev’s perestroika. Gorbachev and his party took the opinion that socialism could only flourish through democratization. In the end, it may be that it was this very democratization that brought about the downfall of a once mighty rival to the US, but answering this is beyond the scope of the essay. Regardless, I believe Gorbachev is to be applauded for the ideals lying behind the reforms which I would say were very closely tied to the process of democratization, and the giving of power to the people.
Word Count - 1482
Bibliography
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Kotz, David, Revolution From Above, London: Routledge, 1997
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Balzer, Harley, Five Years That Shook the World, Colorado: Westview, 1991
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Cockburn, Patrick, Getting Russia Wrong, Finland: Verso, 1989
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Adelman, Deborah, Children of Perestroika, New York: M. E Sharpe Inc, 1992
David Kotz, Revolution from Above, (London: Routledge, 1997), 1
Harley Balzer, Five Years That Shook the World, (Colorado: Westview, 1991), 221
Balzer, Five Years That Shook the World, 34
Balzer, Five Years That Shook the World, 34
Kotz, Revolution from Above, 63
Patrick Cockburn, Getting Russia Wrong, (Finland: Verso, 1989), 14
Kotz, Revolution from Above, 99
Kotz, Revolution from Above, 99
Kotz, Revolution from Above, 11
C1936 USSR Constitution, (http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html)
Kotz, Revolution from Above, 96