Eurocommunism

A system of ideas and political practices advocated primarily by the Italian, French, and Spanish communist movements in 1970s and early 1980s, Eurocommunism aimed to distance Western European communism from the Soviet model and to create various national models of communism, which would be compatible with the liberal democracy.

Eurocommunism was directly incited by two events in 1968: the demonstrations of the student and women movements in Western Europe and the Soviet military intervention in Czechoslovakia and the subsequent suppression of the Prague Spring. The former was interpreted as a demonstration of the intellectual and political potential of the progressive forces in Western Europe and the latter as an indication of the brutality and repressiveness of Soviet-style communism. The conclusion was that Western European communism needed to become more socially inclusive and accommodative of the new social movements and of the middle class in general. It also needed to appreciate and adapt to the liberal-democratic institutions. Another conclusion was that the Western European communism needed to become independent of the political and intellectual influence of the Soviet Union.

An important characteristic of Eurocommunism was its rejection of the Leninist doctrine of internationalism. Eurocommunism emphasized that the communist organizations needed to recognize and adjust to the specific national sociopolitical and economic context within which they operated. The result was the call of Eurocommunism for the development of a plurality of communist ideas and practices that would be of a specific national character. Eurocommunism also influenced non-European communist movements in Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Venezuela.

An important moment in the history of Eurocommunism was a meeting in Madrid in March 1977 by the leaders of the Italian, French, and Spanish communist parties, Enrico Berlinguer, Georges Marchais, and Santiago Carrillo. The result of this meeting was the drafting of the Madrid Declaration, which endorsed the communist ideal of classless society achieved through a peaceful revolution, combined with liberal values of the separation of powers, individual human rights, universal suffrage, and political plurality. Berlinguer presented the ideas of Eurocommunism to the Soviet Party leaders during his visit to Moscow in 1976 and 1977. He was highly criticized, and the public media censored his speeches.

The hybridal ideology of Eurocommunism, and especially its amalgamation of the communist and liberal-democratic notions, turned out to be highly controversial. Its left-wing critics accused Eurocommunism of insufficient radicalism and the compromise with capitalism. Its right-wing critics accused it of excessive social radicalism and lack of definite separation from the Soviet Union. Eurocommunism also lacked a specific policy approach, which meant that its primary contribution was in the realm of ideas rather than practical politics.

Nowadays Eurocommunism is regarded as a transitory stage in the evolution of the Western European communism. The dissolution of Eurocommunism in the 1980s coincided with the growth of social [Page 540]democratic movements and the development of environmental and feminist organizations.