252 
plan decisions and defining the most effective ways for achieving 
the goals.1® 
Information is required for decisionmaking on complex technical 
and policy issues, and the Soviet leadership has emphasized the need 
for a scientific basis of decisionmaking. Marxism-Leninism is presented 
as a scientific approach to understanding and governing society and 
there are frequent calls for greater reliance on expert information.’ 
Western analyses of other aspects of the advisory system in the Soviet 
Union also indicate that studies are conducted by Academy of 
Sciences institutes and evaluated by the government and Communist 
Party apparatus.'® 
CONCLUSION 
The process of Soviet decisionmaking on current ocean policy has 
not been discussed in detail in this article. But, regardless of the 
approach one uses, or whether one assumes rational or irrational 
decisionmaking behavior, policy makers face the need to at least 
~ nominally consider a spectrum of domestic requirements and goals, 
and in some cases the international setting, in developing national 
policies.16° The modern industrial state involves complex decisionmak- 
ing on complex issues and political leaders depend on expertise. The 
role of experts in supplying infomation can lead to strengthened in- 
terest groups. Schwartz and Keech in their study of the domestic 
politics surrounding the 1958 Educational Reform Act hypothesize 
‘“‘that the more modern the society, the more dependent it is on 
technical expertise,’ and the need for expertise works to improve 
interest group access to policy influence. The groups will have greater 
access, the greater the disputes among top leaders, the larger and 
more collective the top leadership, and the more problematic and 
technical the issue.'® 
165 F. Kotov, I. Prostiakov, ‘‘The Participation of Scientific Organizations, pp. 20-1. 
166 See, for example, V. Zagladin, ‘“‘The Revolutionary Process and CPSU International Policy,” 
Kommunist, no. 13 (1972), pp. 14-26. Trans. in FBIS, October 6, 1972, p. A. 1 ff. 
'67See, for example, Oded Eran, ‘Soviet Area Studies and Foreign Policy Making’ GE74TMP35 
(Santa Barbara, Calif.: General Electric-TEMPO Center for Advanced Studies, September, 1974) GE 
74TMP35 for an analysis of the Academy of Sciences area studies institutes and their role in policy 
advising. Zagladin also writes that considerable work is being done in the CPSU Central Committee 
Institute of Marxism-Leninism and the Academy of Social Sciences, and within the framework of the 
U.S.S.R. Academy of Sciences by the Institute of World Economics and International Relations, the 
Institutes of the Far East, Oriental Studies, Africa and Latin America and a number of others. In ad- 
dition, he states that new institutes have been founded to assist in this work, such as the Institute of 
the International Workers Movement, the Institute of Scientific Information for the Social Sciences 
and the Institute of the United States, ‘‘The Revolutionary Process,” p. Al-A2. The Foreign Policy 
Research Institute, ‘The United States and the Demands of Detente Diplomacy.’’ A Conference Re- 
port Research Monograph Series Number Fourteen, (Philadelphia: Foreign Policy Research Institute, 
May, 1973), pp. 14-16, describes the Communist Party-ministerial-institute interaction in detente 
policy and SALT negotiations. Also see Garthoff on the subject of the SALT advisory system. 
'68 John Steinbruner, The Cybernetic Theory of Decision: New Dimensions of Political Analysis 
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1974). Steinbruner discusses, analyzes, and applies three dif- 
ferent decisionmaking models: the rational model, the cybernetic model, and the cognitive model. 
169 Joel J. Schwartz and William R. Keech, ‘“‘Group Influence and the Policy Process in the Soviet 
Union,” American Political Science Review 62 (September, 1968): 840-51. An extensive body of 
literature exists on the formation and growth of interest groups in the Soviet Union. For a sampling 
of this literature, see, Sidney I. Ploss, ed. The Soviet Political Process—Aims, Techniques and Exam- 
ples of Analysis (Waltham, Mass.: Ginn and Co., 1971); H. Gordon Skilling and Franklyn Griffiths, 
eds., Interest Groups in Soviet Politics (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1971) Jerzy Wiatr, 
“Political Parties, Interest Representation, and Economic Development in Poland,’ American Polliti- 
cal Science Review 64 (12, 1970), p. 1239 ff. describes interest groups and the role of the P. U. W. 
P. in Poland. Troitskii also writes about interests in the Soviet Union. Many ministries, departments, 
scientific institutions and design institutions were involved in preparatory decisionmaking concerning 
where to locate the major automobile manufacturing factory. ““And although the specialists studied 
the question deeply and thoroughly, it was not possible to come to a single opinion on where to build 
the plant.” p. 169. 
