Harrison, Mark (2011) Accounting for secrets. Working Paper. Coventry: Department of Economics, University of Warwick. CAGE Online Working Paper Series, Volume 2011 (Number 59). (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Soviet state counted people, resources – and secret papers. The need to account for secrets was a transaction cost of autocratic government. This paper finds archival evidence of significant costs, multiplied by secrecy’s recursive aspect: the system of accounting for secrets was also secret and so had to account for itself. The evidence suggests that most Soviet officials complied most of the time. Numerous instances also imply that careless handling could take root and spread locally until higher authorities intervened. The paper uses the case of a small regional bureaucracy, the Lithuania KGB, to estimate the aggregate costs of handling secret paperwork. Over the period from 1954 to 1982, accounting for secrets makes up around one third of this organization’s archived records. This figure is surprisingly large, and is the main new fact contributed by the paper. There is much time variation, some of it not easily explained.

Item Type:	Working or Discussion Paper (Working Paper)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DK Russia. Soviet Union. Former Soviet Republics H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Economics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Dictatorship -- Lithuania, Secret service -- Lithuania, Dictatorship -- Soviet Union, Secret service -- Soviet Union, Secrecy , Accounting -- Soviet Union
Series Name:	CAGE Online Working Paper Series
Publisher:	Department of Economics, University of Warwick
Place of Publication:	Coventry
Official Date:	17 October 2011
Dates:	Date Event 17 October 2011 ["eprint_fieldopt_dates_date_type_available" not defined]
Date of first compliant deposit:	1 August 2016
Volume:	Volume 2011
Number:	Number 59
Number of Pages:	41
Institution:	University of Warwick
Status:	Not Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Access rights to Published version:	Open Access
Funder:	University of Warwick
Related URLs:	Related item in WRAP

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