The Problem of Administration in Real Socialism: The Experience of the Soviet unio‎n During the 1930s and 1960s

The problem of administration in socialism is related to the relations between politics and administration in political organizations that aimed at a classless society. Through analysis of the development of class societies, Marxism came to the conclusion that the classless society was politically feasible. However, structuralist and historicist interpretations of Marxism generated different approaches towards the relations between politics and administration. These approaches are related with the subjectivity-objectivity relation in the approach on class struggles and they have influenced the discussion on the problem of administration in socialism. While the experience of the 1871 Paris Commune solved the problem of administration by abolishing bureaucracy, the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution revealed the problem of political power. Party politics and Soviet administration were the two footings of socialist power. During the experience of the Soviet unio‎n, the relation between political power and administrative organs in the process of socialization of administration was debated. The 1930s was marked by the discussions on the Five-Year Plan and the 1936 Soviet Constitution. Later, the discussions on the Liberman Reforms and decentralization marked the 1960s. In terms of the relations between politics and administration, the first period was based on political pioneering in industrialization and democratization while the second period was based on reforms in administrative organizations. The difference between the two periods is not only the result of the international real politics that the socialist power encountered, but also is due to the methodological approaches towards the relations between politics and administration during the transition to a classless society.