economic decline Flashcards
what were the reasons for economic decline in the USSR by the 1980s
The legacy of the Stalinist system, geared towards rapid growth without quality or efficiency and trying to move away from this was hard as Bureaucrats who made their career in the Stalin period were resistant to change
Problems inherent in a command economy, didn’t encourage initiative and creativity, central planning too rigid for modern and complex economy.
the ‘social contract’, government would provide employment and standard of living in return for compliance so ineffective factories which did nothing stayed. “we pretend to work and they pretend to pay us” soviet worker
lack of investment in agriculture, improve as years went on but still not enough as short supply of storage, rural transport and reliable machinery.
outdated technology, west were just too advanced for USSR to keep up, by 1980 most tech old and worn out
the dominance of the military-industrial complex, 18% of resources and 30 million people were employed by arms and defence. which could’ve been switch to industry and agriculture which are both more productive and allocatively efficient
