Word: perestroikas
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...China too faces serious problems with its economic-reform program, despite such bright spots as a plentiful supply of most meats. The two Communist giants are floundering, and for some of the same reasons, in their efforts to modernize and reorganize their political and economic systems. Both Gorbachev's perestroika (restructuring) and Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping's gai ge (reform) face opposition. Barriers to reform in the Soviet Union are an entrenched bureaucracy and a growing indifference on the part of citizens who have yet to see a tangible return for their requested sacrifices. In China people are balking...
...personnel changes were, Gorbachev's major coup was pushing through a scheme to slash and rearrange the Central Committee bureaucracy from some 20 departments to at least six. That streamlining sent a clear message to conservatives that the party chief was determined to pick up the pace of perestroika and make bold changes at the very top. Said Gorbachev on Saturday, at a special session of the 1,500-member Supreme Soviet (parliament) called to ratify the party changes: "The people understand our difficulties but demand more decisive and energetic efforts...
Three years after perestroika was introduced, its effects on day-to-day economic life remain meager to the point of near invisibility. Grocery shelves are even barer than they were two years ago, partly because of bad weather conditions. Gorbachev's determination to force industry to become "self- financing" -- to fund current production from the proceeds of past sales -- has run into bureaucratic snags, with central planners continuing to exert control over factory operations by placing "state orders" that effectively determine how much factories produce. Plans exist to revitalize the agricultural sector with a podryad, or contract, arrangement modeled...
Although Soviet students have occasionally been granted permission to study briefly in the U.S., this yearlong exchange represents a glasnost-era breakthrough that would have been unthinkable a few years ago. "Without perestroika, we would not be here in America," says Imbi Hepner, a bouncy 21- year-old education major now at Wheaton College in Massachusetts. The program was initiated by three American college presidents -- Olin Robison of Middlebury, Alice Ilchman of Sarah Lawrence and David Fraser of Swarthmore -- who presented the idea to the Soviet Ministry of Higher Education last year...
...When the great scorecard for 1988 Soviet achievements is totted up, Mikhail Gorbachev's perestroika campaign may receive a modest 8.0 (a bit wobbly on the takeoff) and the return of the Soyuz spacecraft will be lucky to secure a 7.5 (very shaky on the landing). But the Soviet gymnasts, men and women alike, will score a 10 because their performance in Seoul was just that: perfect...