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From: lkk@mit-eddie.UUCP (Larry Kolodney)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.followup
Subject: Re: Stalin and slavery
Message-ID: <1075@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Dec-83 22:15:36 EST
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.1075
Posted: Tue Dec 20 22:15:36 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 22-Dec-83 00:22:26 EST
References: <399@reed.UUCP>, <5535@mcvax.UUCP> <746@cbosgd.UUCP>
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 37

From Mark Horton:
___
> Dave claims that "the people" can make a difference in the United
> States whereas they cannot in the Soviet Union.  This is pretty much
> true, but I don't believe that the Soviet government ignores public
> opinion completely.  The U. S. government is heavily influenced by PACs
> which represent some of the people but certainly not all.

I would be quite interested if you can come up with ONE SHRED OF EVIDENCE
that the Soviet Union can be influenced by public opinion.  My impression
is that the Soviet government actively follows a policy of making sure
that public opinion cannot be formed or measured, lest it reinforce in
the public mind that the people want something different than what the
government wants to provide.
___

In fact the SU does conduct opinion surveys although the results are not
necessarily made public.  Pravda and Isvestia recieve thousands of letters
daily about a variety of non-ideological complaints, and these papers do
serve as a public forum (within limits).

The only reason that Khruschev gained power was due to public support of a
sort.  After Stalin's death, the party was headed by Malenkov.  Khruschev
lobbied within the party and was able to oust him, not through violence, but
through majority suport within the party.  Later, when the "anti-party" group 
in the poliburo tried to oust him, he appealed to the Central Committee
(comprising a few hundred party leaders from around the country) and was
retained.
	There may not be true democracy in the SU, but its not clear its any
worse than say Mayor Daly's chicago in terms of responding to public
sentiment.
-- 
Larry Kolodney
(The Devil's Advocate)

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