Executive Committee of the Soviet of Working People's Deputies

in the USSR, the executive and administrative organ of the soviet of working people’s deputies of a village, settlement, city, raion, national okrug, oblast, autonomous oblast, or krai.

The executive committee is elected from the corresponding Soviet ’s deputies for a term of two years. It is composed of a chairman, vice-chairman, secretary, and members. The executive committee is a collegial organ of general administration. Its competence includes the management of the economy and of social and cultural affairs; the implementation of the orders of higher state agencies; the creation, with the broad participation of the masses, of plans for the development of the economy and culture within its territory and of local budgets, which it submits to the corresponding Soviets for confirmation and then implements; the ensurance of the observance of the law; and the protection of public order and civil rights.

Within the limits of its competence the executive committee issues decisions and ordinances that have binding legal force within its territory. A higher executive committee has the right to abrogate decisions and ordinances of the lower executive committee and to suspend decisions and ordinances of the lower soviet. The relationships between higher and lower executive committees is based on the principles of democratic centralism.

Local organs of other socialist states also form executive and administrative organs.