Stealing the State

Steven L. Solnick is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University.

• Introduction Objectives of This Book The Approach The Basic Argument Outline of the Book 1. Control and Collapse: Reformulating Traditional Approaches A Framework for Analyzing Institutional and Policy Change Power and Control in Soviet Institutions: "Traditional" Theories Summary 2. Control and Collapse: Neoinstitutional Approaches Neoinstitutional Approaches to Hierarchy Explaining Institutional Change Behavioral Theories: "What's So Neo about Neoinstitutionalism? Summary 3. Testing Theories of Institutional Change: The Soviet Youth Program A Strategy for Hypothesis Testing Comrades and Sons: Generational Conflict and Soviet Policy Summary 4. The Communist Youth League Background Institutional Dynamics within the Komsomol Crisis and Collapse of the All- Union Komsomol Summary 5. Job Assignments for University Graduates Background Institutional Dynamics of Raspredelenie The Collapse of the Job Assignments System Summary 6. Universal Military Service Background Institutional Dynamics of Conscription Policy Crisis and Breakdown of the Conscription System Summary 7. The Breakdown of Hierarchy: Comparative Perspectives Reviewing the Case Study Evidence Additional Manifestations of Soviet Institutional Breakdown Chinese Reforms: Successful Decentralization 8. Conclusions and Extensions: Control and Collapse in Hierarchies Hierarchical Control and Collapse in Non-Communist Environments After the Collapse: institutions in the Post-Communist States Appendix: Data Sources Notes Glossary and Abbreviations Index

Amid lamentations over 'reforms' stymied by Communist troglodytes, the repudiation of socialism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union seemed to come out of the blue. An institutional loss of confidence turned into a self-fulfilling spiral. 'Soviet institutions,' explains Steven L. Solnick, 'were victimized by the organizational equivalent of a colossal bank run.' Soviet officials sensed the impending doom, and they 'rushed to claim...assets before the bureaucratic doors shut for good.' Of course, 'unlike [in] a bank run, the defecting officials were not depositors claiming their rightful assets, but employees of the state appropriating state assets.' And they grabbed everything that was 'fungible.' (From the wreckage Solnick himself plucked a valuable book.)