1988 Reports

Democratization “From the Middle Out’’: Soviet Trade Unions and Perestroika

Hauslohner, Peter

Most Western observers have viewed Gorbachev’s campaign for “democratization” with skepticism. They think that he is not serious and democratization means simply the mobilization of Soviet society, not its empowerment, or that the few, real changes he has effected are limited to the intelligentsia — people can’t eat glasnost’, after all. Alternatively, if for some reason he really is committed to opening up the political process and allowing greater competition, then he is certain to fail in the face of fierce opposition from the Party and state bureaucracy whose power and privileges such reform would threaten.