question_answer

Describe any six factors responsible for the disintegration of U.S.S.R.

Or

What is meant by New International Economic Order? Mention any four reforms of the global trading system proposed by UNCTAD in 1972?

Answer:

Factors responsible for Disintegration of U.S.S.R:

(i) Internal weaknesses of Soviet political and economic institutions. Economic stagnation for many years led to consumer shortages.

(ii) There was a huge economic burden as Soviet economy used much of its resources in maintaining a nuclear and military arsenal and the development of its satellite states in Eastern Europe and within the Soviet system (the five Central Asian republics in particular)

(iii) Ordinary citizens became more knowledgeable about the economic advancement of the West. After years of being told that the Soviet system was better than Western Capitalism, the reality of its backwardness came as a political and psychological shock.

(iv) Soviet Union became stagnant in an administrative and political sense as well.

(v) The Communist Party who ruled for over 70 year was not accountable to the people, ordinary people were alienated by slow and stifling administration, rampant corruption.

(vi) The inability of the system to correct mistake it had made the unwillingness to allow more openness in government and the centralization of authority in a vast land.

Or

The Non-aligned countries were categorised as the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) - and the challenge they faced was to be more developed. Economic development was also vital for the independence of the new countries. Without sustained development, a country could not be truly free and then be dependent on richer countries. The idea of a New International Economic Order (NIEO) originated with this realization.

Reforms of the global trading system proposed by UNCTAD in 1972.

(i) To give the LDC?s control over their natural resources exploited by the developed Western countries.

(ii) To obtain access to Western markets so that the LDCs could sell their products and therefore, make trade more beneficial for the poorer countries.

(iii) To reduce the cost of technology from the Western countries.

(iv) To provide the LDCs with a greater role in international economic institutions.