Measuring the Impact of Institutional and Occupational Affiliation on the Stances of Soviet Officials in the 1980-81 Polish Crisis

Abstract

Following from the bureaucratic politics/interest group approach to Soviet foreign policy decision-making, the purpose of this article is to determine whether the stances of Soviet officials in the 1980-81 Polish crisis were effected by their institutional, occupational, or ethnic affiliation. The study found that overall, there was not a strong relationship between group affiliation and tendency orientation. However the results indicate that there were definite coalitions of groups and individuals espousing differing stances on Poland, and that there was a significant difference between the Politburo and Secretariat and the overall score for all other groups.