This is an evaluation of the new legislative politics in the Soviet Union. The contributors examine such topics as the uneven progress of electoral and constitutional reform and the composition, organisation, staffing and procedures of the Congress of People's Deputies and the Supreme Soviet.

Chapter 1 Introduction, Robert T. Huber; Part 1 The New Legal Framework; Chapter 2 The Path of Constitutional Reform in the USSR, Robert Sharlet; Chapter 3 Electoral Reform, Viktor Danilenko; Chapter 4 The New Soviet Legislative Branch, Stuart Goldman; Part 2 The Formation of New Parties and Political Groupings; Chapter 5 Gorbachev's Reforms and the Factionalization of Soviet Politics, Donald R. Kelley; Chapter 6 The Challenge to Soviet Democracy from the Political Right, Joel C. Moses; Chapter 7 Party Formation and Deformation on Russia's Democratic Left, Michael E. Urban; Part 3 The Functioning of the New Supreme Soviet; Chapter 8 Legislative-Executive Relations in the New Soviet Political Order, Eugene Huskey; Chapter 9 Parliamentary Government in the USSR, Thomas F. Remington; Chapter 10 Soviet Defense and Foreign Policy and the Supreme Soviet, Robert T. Huber;