The Collapse of the Soviet Welfare State

The recent changes in the Soviet Union, for all their significance, are poorly understood in the West. I can see only one explanation that simultaneously accounts for all the economic, social, and political aspects of the Soviet reform: the new Gorbachev administration is renegotiating the social contract between the government and the people.

A crucial reason for the recent democratization drive was given in the General Secretary’s speeches last July and August and later elaborated in the Soviet media. Significant popular dissatisfactions with living conditions and resentment of the ruling elite have accumulated in the Soviet Union—to the point where the leadership fears a possibly serious clash between the people and the government. To mitigate this discontent, the Soviets have begun to recognize publicly the extent of mass misery and the collapse of the Soviet welfare state, and have promised a caring hand. An institutional democratization, the establishment of legal guarantees against abuses of power, and a more open press should validate the Soviet leaders’ promissory note for a new social contract.