Ideology and the policy process

Alex Pravda

pp. 225-252

in: Stephen K. White, Alex Pravda (eds), Ideology and Soviet politics, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 1988

Abstract

Does ideology matter in the Soviet Union? This is a question that naturally comes to mind when reviewing the preceding chapters. In a basic sense, ideology clearly matters inasmuch as it figures importantly in Soviet political life.¹ The Soviet party continues to devote considerable resources to keeping ideology visible and conveying its content to a mass domestic and international audience. But visibility is not what most have in mind when asking whether ideology matters. What is really meant is: does it make a difference, and if so, how great a difference? Who believes in what elements of the ideology and, perhaps most pertinent, what role does it play in politics? The central concern of most posing such questions is the effect of ideology on the making of Soviet policy at home and abroad.