Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 January 2009
The ‘rediscovery’ of poverty in the 1960s in the United States and the rising welfare expectations all over the world have sharpened a continuing debate about the relative merits of a variety of proposals for dealing with want. A discussion of the Soviet approach may provide a useful perspective for us and for other countries. Income maintenance programmes in the Soviet Union, as they had developed up to 1968, have been studied by this author. In this paper, an attempt is made to bring developments up to date, focusing on what they suggest in regard to policy for the 1970s.
1 Madison, Bernice, Social Welfare in the Soviet Union, Stanford, 1968, pp. 49–63, 75–6, 195–210.Google Scholar
2 Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 24th Congress, Documents, Moscow, 1971, p. 190.Google Scholar
3 In 1972, on the official exchange, 1 rouble is worth $1.21.
4 The estimate of 75 roubles was arrived at on the basis of the statement that in 1975, this wage would amount to 98 roubles (Brezhnev, Leonid, Report of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1971, p. 51)Google Scholar, this being 30 per cent higher than what it was in 1971 (see reference 2, p. 193).
5 See reference 2, p. 192.
6 Feshbach, Murray, Manpower Trends in the USSR: 1950 to 1980, Washington, D.C: Foreign Demographic Analysis Division, Bureau of the Census, US Department of Commerce, May 1971, Mimeographed, p. 8.Google Scholar
7 The level of labour productivity of basic workers in the Soviet Union is 60 to 70 per cent of the level achieved by their American equivalents, but for auxiliary workers the ratio is only 20 to 25 per cent, Feshbach, op. cit. pp. 2–3.
8 Nadezhdina, N., ‘Gorod, Zavod, Rabochii: Novoe v Sluzhbe Trudoustroistva – Eksperiment v Ufe i Kaluge’ (City, Plant, Worker: Innovations in the Service of job Placement-Experiment in Ufa and Kaluga), Trud, 18 July 1971, p. 2.Google Scholar
9 Official Soviet Statistical Yearbooks for the years 1950–71.
10 Rimlinger, Gaston V., Welfare Policy and Industrialization in Europe, America, and Russia, New York: Wiley & Sons, 1971, p. 299Google Scholar; data for 1968 and 1969 were derived by me from Official Soviet Statistical Yearbooks.
11 See reference 9.
12 Babkin, V. A., ‘Social Security in the Soviet Union’, Interregional Seminar on Industrial Social Welfare, 16 October–5 November, 1971, Moscow, p. 4Google Scholar. Given to author.
13 DrKasiev, M., ‘Health Protection and the Social Security of Workers in the USSR’, international Social Security Review, No. 2, 1971, no pagination.Google Scholar
14 Babkin, op. cit. pp. 4–5.
15 Andreev, V., ‘Leninskaia Programma Strakhovaniia Rabochikh i Sotsial’noe Obespechenie v SSSR’ (The Leninist Programme of Workers' Insurance and Social Security in the USSR), Sovetskaia IUstitsiia, No. 2, January 1970, p. 4.Google Scholar
16 A third system, state social security, serves the military, students, members of artists' unions, and their families. It is administered by the ministries of social welfare of the fifteen republics and funded by allocations from State, republic and local budgets; The system is very much like that for workers and employees.
17 Feshbach, op. cit. pp. 25–6.
18 Komarova, D. P., ‘Vstupaia v Tretii God Piatiletki’ (Upon Entering the Third Year of the Five-Year Plan), Sotsial'noc Obespechenie, No. 1, January 1968, pp. 1–5.Google Scholar
19 Akhromenko, F., ‘Farmers' Social Insurance’, Current Digest of the Soviet Press, Vol. 23, No. 1, 2 02 1971, p. 4.Google Scholar
20 Feshbach, op. cit. p. 14.
21 See reference 2, p. 192.
22 DrLantsev, M., ‘Public Consumption Funds and Social Security in the USSR’, Interregional Seminar on Industrial Social Welfare, 16 October-5 November, 1971, Moscow. 1971, p. 8Google Scholar. Given to author.
23 Kallistratova, R., ‘Rozhdaemost' i Pravo’ (The Birthrate and the Law), Sovetskaia IUstitsiia, No. 2, January 1971, p. 15.Google Scholar
24 See reference 9, 1971, p. 220.Google Scholar
25 Urlanis, Boris, ‘The Birthrate should be controlled’, Sputnik, No. 7, July 1969, p. 15.Google Scholar
26 Whitney, Vincent H., ‘Fertility Trends and Children's Allowance Programs’, in Burns, Eveline M. (ed.), Children's Allowances and the Economic Welfare of Children. The Report of a Conference, New York: Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, 1968, pp. 124 and 137Google Scholar. Note that in 1971, B. Urlanis, a leading Soviet demographer, proposed family allowances for the second and third children which would be proportional to the earnings of the head of the family, Voprosy Ekonomiki, No. 3, 1972, p. 151.Google Scholar
27 Bush, Keith, ‘More Than Ten Million Soviet Industrial Workers and Employees on the Minimum Wage in 1968?’ Radio Liberty Dispatch, 25 June 1970, 3.Google Scholar
28 Lantsev, op. cit. p. 8.
29 Bush, Keith, ‘Minimum Pensions to be Raised’, Radio Liberty Dispatch, 8 June 1971 and 15 July 1971.Google Scholar
30 Lantsev, op. cit. pp. 11–12. Emphasis mine.
31 International Trade Union Conference on Social Security, Moscow, 20–24 September 1971. The Role of the Soviet Trade Unions in the Development and Improvement of Social Insurance, p. 7Google Scholar. Given to author.
32 Smith, Hendrick, ‘The Farm Exodus Worries Moscow’, New York Times, 7 February 1972.Google Scholar
33 Editors, ‘Nash IUbilei’ (Our Jubilee), Sotsial'noe Obespechenie, No. 4, April 1968, p. 4.Google Scholar
34 Editors, ‘TSifry i fakty’ (Figures and facts), Sotsial'noe Obespechenie, No. 4, April 1970, p. 52.Google Scholar
35 Galkin, V., ‘Organizatsiiu Raboty Domov-Internatov – Na Nauchnuiu Osnovu’ (Place Organization of Work in Institutions on a Scientific Base), Sotstal'noe Obespechmie, No. 2, February 1971, pp. 35–7.Google Scholar
36 Komarova, D. P., ‘Vypolnim Resheniia Pravitel'stva’ (Let Us Carry Out the Decisions of the Government), Sotsial'noe Obespechenie, No. 6, June 1969, pp. 3 and 7.Google Scholar
37 ‘S Kollegii Ministerstva’ (From the Collegium of the Ministry), Sotsial'noe Obespechenie, No. 5, May 1971, p. 48.Google Scholar
38 Soldatenkov, I. F., and Burenkov, M. E., ‘Doma-Internaty dlia Prestarelykh i Invalidov i Detskie Doma’ (Institutions for the Aged and Disabled, and Homes for Children), in Komarova, D. P., editor, 50 Let Sovetskogo Sotsial'nogo Obcspecheniia (50 Years of Soviet Social Welfare), Moscow, 1968, p. 151.Google Scholar
39 This information was obtained at the Institute of Gerontology in Kiev, , in October 1971.Google Scholar
40 Madison, op. cit. pp. 223–4.
41 Pusic, Eugene, ‘Levels of Social and Economic Development as Limits to Welfare Policy’, Social Service Review, Vol. 45, No. 4 (12 1971), pp. 409 and 411.CrossRefGoogle Scholar