Soviet Union All Power to the President

By Lisa Beyer

It was a classic Gorbachev performance. After allowing the national parliament to wrangle all week long over the merits of various plans to renovate the economy, the Soviet President decided he had heard enough debate from the toilworn legislators. Late on Friday afternoon Deputy Yuri Golik, a close Gorbachev ally, proposed, without prior discussion, a resolution that would give the President almost total power to overhaul the enfeebled economy by decree.

After several liberals rose to condemn the plan as dictatorial, Gorbachev took to the podium. Banging the lectern with his palm, his face scarlet with determination, he expressed his exasperation with those who dawdled while the economy went up in flames. "We're in a very dangerous situation," he said. "Let's not kid ourselves . . . I ask you for the authority to act." He finished to whoops of applause punctuated with shouts of "Let's do it!" There was no quorum in the hall, so no vote could be taken. But given the enthusiastic response to Gorbachev's oration, the proposition seemed almost certain to pass when the Supreme Soviet resumes its debate this week.

For the moment, Gorbachev's high-drama act has quieted complaints that the President himself is as guilty as anyone else of dithering amid the economic crisis. Though he says he favors the most radical plan before the parliament, a scheme that would demolish socialism and create a full-bodied market system within 500 days, Gorbachev insists on rejecting one of the proposal's fundamental provisions: the devolution of key economic powers to the 15 republics. Moreover, he suggested last week that the privatization of land, perhaps the most important aspect of the plan, be placed on a referendum for voters to decide. The procedure for balloting could take as long as six months to organize, postponing and perhaps dooming the entire reform package should < the public, which is ambivalent about private property, reject the proposition.

Under the pending resolution, the President would gain authority to issue orders on everything from wage hikes to property ownership. Though his pronouncements would be subject to a veto by the 542-member parliament, that body is so indecisive that Gorbachev would have plenty of leeway.

Whether he would take advantage of it is another issue. Gorbachev has said that private property should play "only a rather limited role in society as a whole" -- hardly an endorsement of a principle many economists believe is critical to curing the economy. What's more, Gorbachev has been reluctant to use the special powers he already has. Granted by the parliament earlier this year, they enable him to issue mandates with binding force on practically any subject.

Now, however, the pressure on Gorbachev to do something dramatic is greater than ever. In parliament, Abel Aganbegyan, one of Gorbachev's favorite economists, asserted that "the economic situation in the country is catastrophic." The leading scapegoat for the troubles is Prime Minister Nikolai Ryzhkov, whose own proposed remedy is a go-slow package that preserves much of the center's control over the economy. Led by Moscow Mayor Gavril Popov, some 40,000 demonstrators marched in the capital last week demanding Ryzhkov's resignation. The parliament of the Russian Republic, which accounts for half the Soviet Union's population, seconded the motion in a resolution approved 154 to 1.

In an interview with TIME, Ryzhkov was remarkably frank about the possibility that he might resign. "To resign today," he said, "would mean that we have to choose a whole new government. Does the country really need that right now?" Asked his opinion about a proposal to let Gorbachev rule the country with his Cabinet of ministers, Ryzhkov replied, "Maybe someday we will adopt an American system of government, but it is too early for this."

While distancing himself from Ryzhkov, Gorbachev has refused to sack him. At one point, Ryzhkov threatened to resign if parliament approved a proposal he could not "believe in." Later the Prime Minister endorsed the idea of giving Gorbachev almost single-handed control of the economy, though that would seriously undermine his own authority.

With or without a new set of prerogatives, Gorbachev and the entire central government are skating on the rim of irrelevancy as far as economic policy . goes. Already the Russian parliament, under President Boris Yeltsin, has voted to begin implementing the 500-Day Plan on Oct. 1, regardless of which way Moscow goes. The other republics, many of which desire economic sovereignty more than anything else, will be eagerly looking on.

With reporting by James Carney and Paul Hofheinz/ Moscow