West European Communist Parties after the Revolutions of 1989 [antikvár]

Introduction: of Chance, and Death, and MutabilityPaul HeywoodIn the late 1970s and early 1980s West European communist parties were the focus of considerable attention by political analysts. 'Eurocommunism', which generated a vast out-pouring of academie literature, was widely seen as presaging the emergence of communist parties as key players on the West European political stage.1 It arose in response to one of the central dilemmas facing the communist movement in the industrialised Western democracies: how were communist parties to win significant support whilst they re-mained so closely associated with the Soviet Union? By claiming independence from any Soviet lead and embrac-ing the parliamentary road to socialism, the parties involved in the eurocommunist trend sought to offer an attractive and distinctive option on the left. In Italy, France and Spain in particular, communism in its new-look modern and moderate guise was expected to make mzyor electoral advances -although, ironically, only the Portuguese and French Communist Parties, the former having rejected eurocommunism outright and the latter having renounced it after a brief flirtation, were to enjoy briefly the fruits of political power.2In practice, the eurocommunist dream was soon shat-tered. Rather than advances for the communist left, the 1980s saw a resurgence of the radical right throughout much of Western Europe, boosted by the twin examples of Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan. Even where the right was eclipsed, as in France, Spain and Greece, communist parties were condemned to a secondary role; moreover, ruling socialist parties soon found themselves