The role of the non-socialized sector in perestroika: present state and prospects

Abstract

One of the tangible effects of the perestroika of social life under way in the USSR is the understanding now taking shape of new forms of organization of production operating outside the state sector — small-sized cooperatives and individual enterprises (which in Western literature are not infrequently called the ‘non-socialized sector’ of the economy, though this definition is debatable) — and of their potential role in the economic progress of the country, in the democratization of the social sphere, and in the humanization of public labour. In effect, introduction of these forms of production organization far from exhausts their possibilities in socialist production, or, better, the satisfaction of the people’s needs.