eurocommunism

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eurocommunism

a term denoting the political changes that occurred in the Communist parties of Western Europe (particularly the French, Italian, Spanish and British Communist parties) during the 1970s, involving the development of national, liberal and democratic strategies for the achievement of socialism (Machin, 1983). In his book Eurocommunism and the State (1977), Santiago Carrillo, the Spanish Communist leader, rejected the Russian model of revolutionary socialist development as being inappropriate for advanced capitalist societies. The only way forward for Communist parties was ‘by the democratic, multi-party, parliamentary road’. Eurocommunists also asserted their independence from the Soviet government, which was criticized for its internal repression of dissidents and for the military occupation of Czechoslovakia in 1968. See also COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM. STATE SOCIALIST COUNTRIES.

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In this sense, the delicate issue of dissent undeniably had a functional rationale in providing a unique opportunity to lay bare the constraints to which the PCI was also subjected on an international scale given its prominence both in the international communist movement and in the recent eurocommunist experiment.

Venice 1977: (counter)celebrations of the October Revolution

Whatever the merits of this tradition, it need not detain us since it became increasingly less influential, although its importance in mobilizing support for PASOK in the early years and, in particular, in outmanoeuvring the Eurocommunist and orthodox left should not be underestimated.(3)

The political economy of social democratic economic policies: The Pasok experiment in Greece

The "lively controversies" over Marxism, for instance, had important political consequences, such as the Eurocommunist movement and the growth of dissent in Eastern Europe (95).

Political sociology

Marxism and Politics, from the same period, is his most explicitly "strategic" work, seeking new wisdom from Marxism about the transcendence of advanced capitalism, clearly partook of "Eurocommunist" rethinking on the European Left.

Ralph Miliband

This assessment does not explain why support for the historic left (both in the form of the pro-Soviet KKE and of the Eurocommunist KKE Esoterikou) remained static (or even declined in the latter case) throughout this period, and it also ignores the fact that PASOK's profile had undergone a process of tactical adaptation as its prospects for gaining power were becoming evident.

Party elites and democratization in Greece

One reason for this is the similar trend in Western Europe, where many South American leftists spent their years in exile, a reflection of both the fading of Eurocommunist hopes and the confessed failures of state socialism in the Soviet Union, China and Eastern Europe.

The southern cone: socialism fades out of fashion

Unfortunately, the Eurocommunist conviction that the movement needed to be consistently democratic emerged only in the decades when communism's vitality and promise as an economic system was becoming exhausted.

Communism, democracy and the left: what lessons on democracy and politics can we learn from the history of communism?

The deterioration of the relationship between the PCF and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1975 to 1976 suggested that the French party might, like its sister parties in Spain and Italy, emancipate itself from the CPSU and follow a 'Eurocommunist' path.

PCF and front de Gauche, exploiting a communist nostalgia in France?

An analysis and an interpretation of some frequent topics during the Romanian-Belgian meetings, such as the European security in the context of international security and cooperation, the struggle against imperialist forces, the building of socialism by the unification of the left wing forces or topics connected to the eurocommunist thesis, can highlight for us, to a certain extent, the position of Romanian or Belgian communists in the matters of the international communist movement.

The West European communist parties and the emergence of their political identity. Case study: the Belgian communist party

In the mid 1970s, the French, Italian, and Spanish communist parties feigned a break with Moscow and launched their own "independent" form of liberal "Eurocommunism." While remaining faithful Soviet lackeys, Eurocommunist leaders like George Marchais, Enrico Berlinguer, and Santiago Carillo publicly criticized the Kremlin over human rights issues and denounced communist terrorist groups--but only as a ploy to gain legitimacy and extend communist influence through democratic means.

Putin, poison, and murder: the recent murder-by-poison of Russian KGB/FSB defector Alexander Litvinenko is a potent warning about the dangers of our new security "partnership" with Putin's Russia

Similarly, a good number of people can't quite figure out what kind of Marxist I am; they seem to have some very fixed categories in their head - Stalinist, Trotskyist, Eurocommunist, Maoist, what have you and - I don't fit any of those categories.

Issues of class and culture: an interview with Aijaz Ahmad

He was jailed in 1982 for advancing Eurocommunist notions and was released thirteen months later, under Andropov.