197,196 research outputs found
How much control is enough? Monitoring and enforcement under Stalin
No full textGiven wide scope for asymmetric information in huge hierarchies agents have a large capacity for opportunistic behaviour. Hidden actions increase transactions costs and cause the demand for monitoring and enforcement. Once the latter are costly, this raises questions about their scope, logistics and type. Using historical records, this paper examines the Stalin’s answers to them. We find that Stalin maximised efficiency of the Soviet system of control but had to mitigate with the problems of the loyalty of inspectors themselves and the necessity to lessen the risk of a “chaos of orders” arising from parallel centres of power
A propos de la Communication de M. Chambroux, sur les silex du Campigny
No full textStalin M. A propos de la Communication de M. Chambroux, sur les silex du Campigny. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, tome 1, n°5, 1904. pp. 157-158
Types inédits de percuteurs
No full textStalin M. Types inédits de percuteurs. In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, tome 1, n°2, 1904. pp. 74-78
Totalitarianism and geography: L.S. Berg and the defence of an academic discipline in the age of Stalin
No full textIn considering the complex relationship between science and politics, the article focuses upon the career of the eminent Russian scholar, Lev Semenovich Berg (1876–1950), one of the leading geographers of the Stalin period. Already before the Russian Revolution, Berg had developed a naturalistic notion of landscape geography which later appeared to contradict some aspects of Marxist–Leninist ideology. Based partly upon Berg's personal archive, the article discusses the effects of the 1917 revolution, the radical changes which Stalin's cultural revolution (from the late 1920s) brought upon Soviet science, and the attacks made upon Berg and his concept of landscape geography thereafter. The ways in which Berg managed to defend his notion of geography (sometimes in surprisingly bold ways) are considered. It is argued that geography's position under Stalin was different from that of certain other disciplines in that its ideological disputes may have been regarded as of little significance by the party leaders, certainly by comparison with its practical importance, thus providing a degree of ‘freedom’ for some geographers at least analogous to that which has been described by Weiner (1999. <i>A little corner of freedom: Russian nature protection from Stalin to Gorbachev</i>. Berkeley: University of California Press) for conservationists. It is concluded that Berg and others successfully upheld a concept of scientific integrity and limited autonomy even under Stalinism, and that, in an era of ‘Big Science’, no modernizing state could or can afford to emasculate these things entirely
Stalin and the Fate of Europe
No full textNorman M. Naimark, Stalin and the Fate of Europe. The Postwar Struggle for Sovereignty, Harvard University Press, août 2019, 368 p. Présentation de l'éditeur The Cold War division of Europe was not inevitable—the acclaimed author of Stalin’s Genocides shows how postwar Europeans fought to determine their own destinies. Was the division of Europe after World War II inevitable? In this powerful reassessment of the postwar order in Europe, Norman Naimark suggests that Joseph Stalin was far more ..
How Much Control is Enough? Monitoring and Enforcement under Stalin.
No full textIn hierarchies, agents’ hidden actions increase principals' transactions costs and give rise to a demand for monitoring and enforcement. The fact that the latter are costly raises questions about their scope, organisation, and type. How much control is enough? The paper uses historical records to examine Stalin’s answers to this question. We find that Stalin's behaviour was consistent with his aiming to maximise the efficiency of the Soviet system of control subject to the loyalty of his inspectors and the risk of a “chaos of orders” arising from parallel centres of power.Casymmetric information, principal-agent problem, transaction costs, hierarchy, USSR
Meule à grains et Molette de la fin du Néolithique ou des débuts du Bronze, provenant des environs de Cires-les-Mello et de Boury (Oise)
No full textStalin M. Meule à grains et Molette de la fin du Néolithique ou des débuts du Bronze, provenant des environs de Cires-les-Mello et de Boury (Oise). In: Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, tome 9, n°1, 1912. pp. 67-71
The dictator’s dilemma: to punish or to assist? Plan failures and interventions under Stalin
No full textA dictator issues an order, but the order is not carried out. The dictator does not know whether the order failed because the agent behaved opportunistically, or because his order contained some mistake. Imperfect information creates his dilemma : whether to punish the agent, or assist her or both. This paper models the dictator’s intervention when an order fails. The analysis links the dictator’s coercive policy with the softness of budget constraints. The model is verified against the history of Stalin’s dictatorship, using statistical evidence extracted from the formerly secret records of the Communist Party's "control commission"
The dictator\u2019s dilemma: to punish or to assist? Plan failures and interventions under Stalin
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