Chapters 1 and 2 showed that in the immediate post-Soviet period, regional governments stepped into the void left by the breakdown of the old planned economy and began making many independent decisions concerning employment, social services, and incomes. Because the central government was preoccupied with macroeconomic stabilization, privatizing federal assets, and the political struggle against communist and nationalist opposition, regional governments had substantial autonomy in constructing new informal arrangements, which they generally did in consultation with local enterprises. Most regions established some form of nominally corporatist structures for consultation among employers, labor, and government to deal with employment and social policy issues, although the agreements reached through the tripartite mechanisms were often no more than statements of aspirations. More effective regional governments also created structures for the aggregation and representation of the interests of major enterprises. In many regions, government was not a passive referee between business and labor, but intervened to construct the new system of economic and social relations. Governments and enterprise managers jointly set policy concerning employment, minimum wage levels, investment, competition, taxation, infrastructure development, and some elements of social policy. There were variations in this pattern. Some regional governments were more interventionist than others. In some regions, some enterprises were so large and powerful that they were effectively autonomous of the regional government. In others, regional government effectively nationalized the major local enterprises.