Seeking legal forms for the autonomous sector

The aim of radical economic reform as an integral part of perestroika in the USSR is to induce a shift towards a market economy managed by the state. The planned management of the economy should be preserved under market conditions, although in a form significantly different from what has previously existed in the history of the Soviet state. The concept of a new model of renewed socialism raises the possibility of bringing together market and plan. However, in all the versions considered so far, this concept is based on a multisectoral economy, especially in the initial stages of radical economic reform. It goes without saying that this will not be the same multisectoral economy as existed in the 1920s during the NEP (New Economic Policy). In view of the present social and economic structure of Soviet society, and of the level of development of productive forces, the nature of such multisectorality (the contents of each sector, their organization, etc.) should be different. At the same time it would be wrong to think that, with the development of non-state forms of ownership, the shift towards a multisectoral economy will leave the presently existing social structure of Soviet society intact. The change in ownership relations which constitutes the cornerstone of economic reform will inevitably lead to modernization of the social structure as well.