Editor's Introduction

Abstract

Faculty advisor to a generation of American graduate students working on Ph.D. dissertations at Moscow State University, Prof. G. V. Barabashev cautiously addresses several of the weaknesses of the Soviet electoral system in light of General Secretary Gorbachev's call for greater "democratization." One anomaly that he notes: the candidate standing for office tends to be the least active figure in election campaigns. In his view, it is also a shortcoming that many deputies to local Soviets neither live nor work in the election districts they represent. Barabashev appears to advocate more personal differentiation of candidates' positions, but he steps back from the consequences in acknowledging the legitimacy of fears that opponents in multicandidate districts might end up reflecting different social or ethnic interests. His solution to this and the related problem of candidates' being unwilling to run if they might lose (!) is multiple-member constituencies (more than one deputy per election district with more candidates than deputy positions to fill) buttressed by the gentlemanly practice of making the losers "alternate deputies." The radical implications of genuine democratization have yet to be thought through in the Soviet Union. But in the words of one Soviet academic (not Barabashev), "no one—no one-believes single-candidate elections are of any worth."