Goal Rationality in the Formulation and Conduct of Soviet and Russian Foreign Policy

Abstract

T.H. Rigby’s concept of goal rationality, building on Max Weber’s ideas of substantive and formal-legal rationality in the functioning of bureaucracies, provided important insights into the relevance of ideology for understanding how the Soviet system worked at both the domestic and foreign policy levels. This ideological dimension has tended to be neglected in much of the Western literature on Soviet communism. Since the end of the Soviet system, Russian leaders have tended to avoid ideology as a negative example to be avoided. Nevertheless, in their search for doctrines and principles to guide foreign and domestic aspects of the pursuit of national interests, these leaders have willy-nilly fallen back on ideological ways of thinking, which Rigby’s goal rationality helps to elucidate.