1988 Reports

The New Enterprise Law

Ericson, Richard E.

January 1, 1988, the Soviet Union began implementing the radical economic reform about which Mikhail Gorbachev has talked so much. At its heart is the new "Law of the USSR on the State Enterprise (Association)" [LSE], complex legislation designed to break with Stalinist economic practice and make Soviet enterprises into autonomous, democratic, financially independent producers. The Law is explained in a visionary document, "Basic Provisions for the Radical Restructuring of Economic Management," approved by the June (1987) Plenum. It is further elaborated in a set of decrees jointly promulgated on July 17, 1987, by the Party and government.| Bold in vision and promise, the Law also contains great gaps and contradictions.