The Politics of Developed Socialism

In his new study, Kelley looks at the emergence of what Soviet theorists call a developed socialist society and at the recent political, economic, and social developments, up to and including those of the early days of the Gorbachev administration, that are contributing to this newest adaptation of Marxism-Leninism. His central premise is that the Soviet leadership, having arrived at a turning point created by the impact of the scientific and technological revolution, has recognized the inability of existing policies and institutions to meet the needs of a rapidly maturing system. Kelley finds that, both as a theoretical stage in the evolution toward communism and as a reflection of changes in Soviet society, the concept of developed socialism presents a picture of political and social modernization that is in many ways the counterpart of the Western theory of post-industrial society. He also notes a new, seemingly more flexible Soviet approach to ideology as such. The Soviets, he observes, look upon the theory of developed socialism itself as being in an evolving state, treating it as an open-ended model of future economic and social transformation whose outlines are only gradually becoming discernable.