ity and authority for major segments of the R&D ef- 

 fort, the republics act as a conduit and interpreter 

 of S&T policy and directives of central bodies. Given 

 the highly centralized Soviet system and its distinct 

 set of R&D priorities, however, republic and local 

 involvement in science planning and management remains 

 substantially circumscribed. With the exception of 

 Georgia there are no counterparts to the USSR State 

 Committee for Science and Technology on the republic 

 level. "All-union," rather than "union-republic," 

 much less "republic," ministries and agencies shape 

 S&T policy and direct the national R&D effort, just 

 as they do in economic policy and development more 

 generally. 



On the whole, both countries have made inordinate- 

 ly high investments in defense, aerospace, and nucle- 

 ar R&D while under investing in technology for econom- 

 ic growth. Though technological innovation has cer- 

 tainly been a more prominent and widespread feature 

 of the American economy than of the Soviet, still 80 

 percent of all US R&D has been concentrated in just 

 five "intensively engineered" industries. Further- 

 more, 80 percent of federally supported R&D goes to 

 just two of these sectors — aircraft and missiles, and 

 electrical equipment and communications. 



In both nations, scientific R&D remains highly 

 concentrated geographically in a few major urban cen- 

 ters and is performed by a few large institutions. 

 The Soviet penchant for large-scale organization and 

 functional specialization is well known. Tradition- 

 ally, head research institutes and design bureaus 

 have been given primary responsibility for developing 

 the main thrusts in science and technology. They are 

 organized to serve whole branches of industry rather 

 than individual production facilities. The small 

 business firm and individual entrepreneur do play an 

 important role in American science and technology, 

 especially in innovation, that is virtually absent in 

 the Soviet system. But even in the United States, in- 

 dustrial R&D is dominated by a small number of large 

 corporations. Just 10 R&D performing firms account 



299 



