science and technology. This secondary system of spe- 

 cial mechanisms for R&D planning and management can 

 fulfill its role only when it is closely integrated 

 with and subordinated to the basic links of economic 

 management. "It is impossible for this supplementary 

 system alone to solve all the problems of managing 

 S&T progress," Popov emphasizes. 83 



While everyone generally agrees that both the ba- 

 sic system and the supplementary system need to be 

 improved, there is considerable dispute about what to 

 improve and how. According to Popov, it is possible 

 to identify three main schools of reform. One group 

 focuses on improvements in planning, the search for 

 better indicators, more sophisticated analytical tech- 

 niques, etc. A second favors structural approaches 

 and organizational solutions. A third school empha- 

 sizes the importance of improved economic mechanisms, 

 such as more effective material incentives, better 

 pricing policies, integrated financing, etc. The 

 "best" policy, in Popov's opinion, is to pursue im- 

 provements along all three avenues, to unite all links 

 of the supplementary system, and to integrate this 

 system with the basic economic mechanism. Indeed, 

 this multi-dimensional approach has been generally 

 the path of reform in recent years. 



On a broader level, developments in the 1970s con- 

 firm that in the Soviet Union, as elsewhere, the for- 

 mulation and implementation of science policies de- 

 pend not only on their substantive effectiveness but 

 on their political feasibility as well. Suffice it 

 to say that substantial disagreement persists within 

 the leadership about the intensity of the "technolog- 

 ical imperative." Opinions differ over the urgency 

 of making the transition to more intensive growth in 

 general and more rapid technological advance in par- 

 ticular. Political differences and conflict among 

 the major elite groups constrain action in this pol- 

 icy sphere. Indeed it is politics that accounts 

 largely for the basic discrepancy between the es- 

 poused strategy for S&T with its emphasis on the need 

 for a systems perspective and approach to problem- 



287 



