economic sovereignty of republics
경제주권
The principle articulated in Chapter 3 of the 500 Days Programme (1990) that the Union republics hold primary economic sovereignty, delegating only specific, enumerated powers upward to the Union centre. It reversed the existing Soviet federal order, in which the centre held all meaningful economic authority, and made the republics the basic subjects of economic regulation. This political-legal framework was the core that made the plan attractive to Yeltsin's RSFSR, which sought maximum republican autonomy, and unacceptable to the Union government, which could not accept surrendering economic power to the republics.
In depth
Chapter 3 of the 500 Days Programme, "The Economic Union of Sovereign Republics," took as its starting point "the striving of peoples for economic and political sovereignty" and declared that member republics possessed "exclusive right to legislative regulation of the possession, use and disposal of all national wealth on their territory." Land, subsoil resources, internal and territorial waters, the continental shelf, airspace and other natural resources were defined as "the property of their people, the material basis of the state sovereignty of the republics."
The reversal of the centre–republic relationship was the chapter's core. In the existing Soviet order, the centre held all powers and "granted" some downwards; the 500 Days stated that republics were the source of sovereignty and that Union governing bodies "act in accordance with the powers delegated to them by the republics." Delegated powers were limited to ten enumerated areas: defence, monetary and currency policy, common customs, trunk infrastructure, and others. Even the Union budget was to be funded by republic contributions, each republic's share determined by its GNP or per capita GNP.
The principle aligned precisely with Yeltsin's Russia, which had declared sovereignty on 12 June 1990. For a republic that had asserted its sovereignty, a framework granting it the right to execute reform on its own authority, rather than wait for directives from the centre, was naturally attractive. For Gorbachev and the Ryzhkov government, however, it amounted to accepting the practical dissolution of the Union in the economic sphere first. Economist Oleg Bogomolov reflected in 2005 that "expanding the republics' autonomy was the main reason for torpedoing the programme," and Zurab Yakobashvili noted already in 1990 that "the most important part of the Shatalin plan is not so much its economic aspects but rather its political aspects."
When Gorbachev chose a compromise in October 1990, the concept was officially shelved, but it became a logical and legal precedent as the republics filled out the substance of sovereignty during the subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Related historical events
Sources
- yabloko.ru Full Russian text of Chapter 3 of the 500 Days Programme (section: 'Экономический суверенитет республик — членов Союза'), the primary source for the concept's definition and the enumerated powers delegated to the Union centre.
- soviethistory.msu.edu English translation of the 500 Days Programme from Seventeen Moments in Soviet History (MSU), confirming the 'economic sovereignty' phrasing and the republics' exclusive rights over national wealth.
- latimes.com Los Angeles Times, 16 September 1990: Zurab Yakobashvili identifies republic sovereignty as 'the most important part' of the Shatalin plan politically, noting it was the feature that distinguished it from the rival government plan.
- Wikipedia (RU) Russian Wikipedia article on the 500 Days Programme: Oleg Bogomolov's 2005 assessment that expanding the republics' autonomy was 'the main reason for torpedoing the programme.'