Political Rents, Promotion Incentives, and Support for a Non-Democratic Regime

largely due to increasing numbers of full party members, resulting from a rapid mortality
decline in this period. At the same time, the ratio of party candidates to the total labor force
fluctuated around 1:100 without any significant trend.

Benefits of party membership. Party membership was normally a prerequisite for
appointment to a top managerial position in all spheres of the economy or for pursuing a
career in government: civil administration, economic control, or party. A position of a
“leading party worker” (party bureaucrat) was of the utmost importance. There is no
indication that party membership per se did pay, but party bureaucracy did receive substantial
rents in the form of high salaries and fringe benefits. A major part of the party organizations
expenditure, according to national party budgets (RGASPI), was geared to provide benefits to
paid party officials, the remainder being used to cover operational expenses and to finance
propaganda campaigns. Salaries of paid party officials constituted only a minor portion of
their rents. Fringe benefits (health and child care subsidies, relocation packages, etc.) and
non-monetary rewards, such as free housing financed from party budgets, constituted a more
significant part of their real incomes.

3.2. Available data

Party membership. Numbers of candidates and full members are available on the
national level for the whole period of the existence of the Soviet communist party. Republic
level data are available for 1956-1968 (UFFA). Significant lacunae in the time series restrict
the dataset to only nine republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia,
Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. In post-Stalin years, the candidate trial period was
close to one year, so the number of candidates for a given year equals approximately the

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