ie

agencies located on their respective
territories.

Local bodies of State authority
should be made fully responsible for
and independent in deciding matters
related to the development of their
Tespective territories. Broad use should
be made of profit-and-loss accounting,
contractual and other forms of
relations with enterprises and agencies,
no matter to whom the latter are
subordinated. Consistent efforts should
be made to preclude intervention by
higher bodies of State authority and
management agencies in the process of
making decisions within the
competence of local Soviets situated
lower down the line, and also to
Preclude numerous unneccessary co-
Ordination.

The correct relationship between
local Soviets and Councils of work
collectives acquires special importance.
The basic premise here is that a Soviet
of People’s Deputies co-ordinates the
drafting and implementation of plans
for social development of enterprises,
collective and State farms, the
Promotion of democratic principles in
production management, and defence
of the interests of the population from
what Lenin described as excessive
departmental zeal.

Changes in the functions of the
Soviets and the need for a more careful
and competent study of questions shall
make it essential to extend the duration
of their sessions. A number of Deputies

. Should be relieved, either for the entire

duration of their term or periodically,
from their official and production
duties so that they can work in the
Soviets, standing commissions and
constituencies.

The Soviets should work in an
atmosphere of the greatest possible
openness. Members of the general
public and media representatives
should be free to attend their meetings,
and the electors and the public should
be kept systematically informed about
the results of their work.

Genuine primacy of Soviets over
Executive bodies should be ensured. It
should be stipulated that officials
employed by Executive bodies
accountable to a given Soviet cannot
simultaneously be Deputies to that
Soviet. This rule should be applied to
persons making up the Council of
Ministers of the Republics and, with
only a few exceptions, to members of
the All-Union government, as well as
to judges, state arbiters and
Procurators. Officials should be
appointed to Executive bodies by the
Soviets, and as a rule only after
standing Commissions make
corresponding conclusions to this

* effect.

Local Soviets (with the exception of
those at village and settlement levels)

should establish Presidiums that could
concern themselves with organizing the
Deputies’ work, co-ordinating the
activities of standing commissions and
Deputies’ groups and which between
sessions could supervise the work
carried out by Executive Committees.
It is expedient to concentrate the
attention of Executive Committees on
economic, administrative and executive
functions.

To ensure better continuity and
efficiency of Deputies, the standard
term of all Soviet of People’s Deputies
in the country should be fixed at five
years.

The transfer of power in its entirety,
from the bottom through the top,
presupposes that the role of the
country’s supreme body of authority
should grow radically. In its structure
and activities due account should be
taken of the accumulated experience of
the functioning of our political system,
including the procedure of work of
Soviets’ Congresses and of the Central
Executive Committee of the
USSR — a practice that took shape
under Lenin.

Various versions and suggestions are
possible here. Some of them have
already been put forth during the
current debates: on extending the
duration of sessions of the supreme
body of authority; on delimiting
precisely the powers and making up for
the lack of functional individuality of
the chambers; on electing a number of
Deputies directly from public
organizations that make up the
political system of our society, and so
forth.

To observe the Leninist principles of
state life, a rule shall be introduced
according to which no one may hold
an elective government post for more
than two terms, i.e. for.ten years.
Election for a third term running can
take place on Deputies’ initiative, with

The necessity to
dramatically enhance the
role of Soviets requires an
election system reform to
guarantee free nomination
of candidates, and wide and
multi-sided discussion at
public meetings and in the
media.

obligatory preliminary decision on
allowing the nominee to run for
elections, taken by no less than 75 per

cent of Deputies of the Soviet involved,
by secret ballot.

“Public Opinion,”’ one of the exciting new call-in shows now airing on Soviet TV.

The Constitutional premise shall be
strictly observed that one person may
not be Deputy of more than two
Soviets at a time.

The necessity to dramatically .
enhance the role of Soviets requires an
election system reform to guarantee
free nomination of candidates, and
wide and multi-sided discussion of the
nominees at public meetings and in the
mass media.

Elections must naturally proceed
from the will of the voters who give
preference to principles, efficient and
dynamic persons able to become
worthy representatives of the people in
Soviet State bodies and to express the
whole range of the people’s social,
ethnic and occupational interests.

The new conditions enhance the role
of the Soviet government, the Supreme
Executive and Administrative State
body, in exercising domestic and
foreign policies, governing the country,
and the elaboration and
implementation of plans and long-term
programs for economic, social and
cultural development.

The conference shall pay due
attention to the restructuring of the
state management system, with account
for the democratic change under way
in the Soviet community, and the
radical economic reform. The
formation of economic, organizational
and legal conditions for efficient
performance of all offices and
organizations shall become the main
purport of the work of state bodies.
The structure of the apparatus and the
number of its officials must be brought
into correspondence with those
functions, with unnecessary sections
abolished.

The performance of management
bodies needs strict supervision by
Soviets, the People’s Inspectorate and
community activists to do away with
command and pressure management,
the bureaucratic spirit and red tape.
Wide publicity and openness in
management are also highly effective
here.

Perestroika and democratic change
in the Soviet community requires the
Leninist principles of organizing the
inspection to be fully implemented, to
become a genuine, truly efficient vehicle
of direct and immediate participation
by workers, peasants, intellectuals and
representatives of all other social strata
in the running of state and social
affairs.

It seems expedient, in this
connection, to set up a unified system
of state and public inspection under
elective ruling bodies. Supported by its
groups in work collectives and
territorial units, such a system can

soca =

The famous Arbat street in Moscow, teeming with the spirit of glasnost.

largely promote the implementation of
current national tasks.

The restructuring of the political
system requires timely measures
discussed and adopted to further
improve the Soviet Federation. The
brilliant results of the Leninist
nationalities policy over the 70 Soviet
years are evident to all.

Nationalities Policy

e have done
tremendous,
historic
work to
overcome
inter-ethnic
strife, gua-
. Tantee the
right of
nations to self-determination, revive
and encourage ethnic cultures, and
boost the progress of what used to be
backward national outskirts. A unified
national economic complex has taken
shape and functions successfully as the
material basis for the unity of Soviet
peoples.

Practice has shown, at the same
time, that inter-ethnic relations require
constant attention, as does the progress
of every ethnic entity. A political line to
satisfy all ethnic communities’ interests
and promote their rapprochement and
mutual aid, alongside an
internationalist ideology incompatible
with nationalism and chauvinism,
provides the basis for the solution of
inter-ethnic issues.

All Soviet Constituent Republics and
autonomous units have built on their
economic, cultural and human
resources potential. Ethnic awareness is
duly growing. The independence of
Constituent and Autonomous
Republics and other ethnic
administrative units must go hand-in-
hand with their responsibility for
national state interests. Herein lies the
way to further progress of ethnic
communities, to closer friendship
between them, and the consolidation of
the Soviet nation. Herein is our
strength and the guarantee of
prosperity for the Soviet Union as a
whole and for every ethnic entity.

Decentralization and devolution of
aS many management duties as possible
to local bodies fully concerns every
form of Soviet ethnic entities’ statehood
and autonomy, with strict observance
of Constitutional premises and the
Soviet legislation, which guarantee the
rights of Constituent and Autonomous

Pacific Tribune, June 22, 1988 « 11