Scaling and statistical models for affiliation networks: patterns of participation among Soviet politicians during the Brezhnev era

We use scaling and statistical models to study networks of ties among Soviet politicians during the Brezhnev era created by their co-attendance at events. The data consist of observations made by the National Foreign Assessment Center of the Central Intelligence Agency of appearances of Soviet political elites at official and social events for 8 years during the height of the Brezhnev era. Conventional wisdom characterizes the Soviet system as partimonial rather than bureaucratic in nature, that is, a system in which power is exercised through loyalties to key players often rooted in common regional and educational associations. One, therefore, might expect that co-attendance at events over these 8 years to be unrelated to actor’s formal positions and the nature of the events. However, our scaling models reveal that participation is patterned by the state and party offices elites hold. Random graph models provide tests of hypotheses about structural features of this network and confirm the interaction between politicians’ offices and the types of events which they jointly attend. Our discussion of the substantive implications of our analyses highlights the need for more detailed examination of “career tracks” through the co-participation space, particularly deviant career tracks and the need for a companion analysis of the structuring participations by informal power groups like those identified by Willerton Soviet Stud. 34 (1987) 175].