What were the factors that forced Gorbachev to initiate the reforms in the USSR?

Mikhail Gorbachev was the General Secretary of Communist Party of Soviet Union in 1985. He was forced to initiate the reforms in the USSR due to following reasons: 

1. To keep the USSR abreast of information and technological revolutions at par the West. 

2. To normalize the relations with that of the West. 

3. To democratize the Soviet System. 

4. To loosen the administrative system which exempted ordinary people from the privileges.

Gorbachev brought many reforms to Russia. These are the reasons for introducing the reforms:

• After the WW II, Soviet Union became a real Superpower. In the armament race, Soviet Union became equal to America. But it had to spend a lot of its resources for that. The economy of the Soviet Union was not that strong.
• Soviet Union was far behind the West in technology.
• In the Soviet system there were elements of autocracy and bureaucracy. People were not happy with that system.
• It was the Communist Party that led the Government. It also controlled all Institutions in the country. The Party had no responsibility to the people.
• Soviet Union utterly failed to full fill the political and economic needs of the people.