Market and Plan Under Socialism by Jan S. Prybyla

Author:Jan S. Prybyla
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hoover Institution Press
Published: 1987-03-18T16:00:00+00:00

Administrative Controls over Labor

Although manipulation of wage levels and differentials is the principal means used today to equate the supply of labor with planner demand for labor, other nonmarket means are also employed. The long-run structure of labor supply is importantly influenced by the government’s educational policy. Communist Party members are obliged to serve where the party decides, although there is considerable concealed traffic and influence-peddling in this regard. Members of the Communist Youth Organization (Komsomol) are supposed to respond to the organization’s employment instructions, especially when it comes to going north or helping with the harvest. Under the Stalinplan, massive transfers of collective farm labor to industry were carried out (frequently on a compulsory quota basis) by the Administration of Organized Labor Recruitment (Orgnabor). Graduates of secondary and vocational schools are often placed in local enterprises by local authorities. College and university graduates are obliged to work for three years in jobs assigned to them by the authorities; this measure is justified as repayment of the scholarships granted to the students throughout their college careers. There are also many administrative controls over labor mobility, some of which were mentioned earlier (the internal passport, residence permits, de facto rationing of housing, and so on). Nomenklatura controls over choice appointments have also been discussed. The appointments are not only choice—they are key. Hence, a strategically important segment of the total employment picture escapes even the modest marketization of Grossman’s Quadrant II (see Figure 2.1). Last but not least, there is concentration camp labor—down from its peak of 7–15 million prisoners during and immediately after World War II, but still significant.

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