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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