Eurocommunism

Euro communism refers to the policy of some Communist parties of Western Europe and in particular their differentiation from Soviet-style socialism in the Cold War. The term originated around 1975 and was used in the 1970s and 1980s in media and politics. At first he was a liability and no proper name, but was accepted even within the parties so designated and used. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 can apply Euro communism as historically the term, as it was developed consciously as opposed to socialism concept of communist leadership power ( real existing socialism). Its affiliated policies were previously and are referred to today as across reform communism.

The Euro Communists denied the international leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union ( CPSU ) on the other Communist Parties ( CPs ) and proclaimed waiving the slogan of the " dictatorship of the proletariat " democratic road to socialism within the pluralist parliamentary systems of Western Europe.

In the 1970s and 1980s, especially the Communist parties of Italy, Spain and France were of Euro -communist views. Important representatives and pioneers of Euro communism was Enrico Berlinguer, 1972-1984 General Secretary of the Italian Communist Party (PCI - Partito Comunista Italiano). Even before Berlinguer the Italian Communist Party had taken a critical stance towards the CPSU. So they condemned as early as 1968, the suppression of the reform- communist approach of the "Prague Spring" by Warsaw Pact troops under Soviet leadership. In Czechoslovakia at that time efforts have been formulated, should be reintroduced under which also market elements (see Socialist market economy ). According to the reform- communist nature of Euro communism should, however, does not establish full private sector, but the socialist economy are combined with a democratic structure - in Czechoslovakia the slogan "socialism with a human face " was coined.

In Western Europe, the politically successful CPs with permanent seats in parliaments, mayors or partial participation in government since the 1970s followed an increasingly Euro -communist orientation; many aligned to the CPSU CPs, such as the West German German Communist Party ( DKP) or the Socialist Unity Party of West Berlin ( SEW), on the other hand found no resonance in the population. In many cases this has been attributed to their orthodoxy, which did not allow an authentic policy. In fact, however, there were in West Germany also no successful new or counter- ups EUR Communist parties. Instead, here already coined from an opposition between democracy and new social movements that occurred in other Western European countries later. Euro Communist intellectuals organized in the Federal Republic of Germany in the existing 1976-1980 Working Group Western European labor movement.

The Titoismus in Yugoslavia was sometimes also considered a form of Euro-Communism, as Tito had broken in 1948 with the Stalinist Soviet Union and pursued its own path to communism. This was referring to earlier devices democratic models and made ​​dynamic the Yugoslav planned economy through the introduction of forms of worker self-management. The " Yugoslav model " of economic planning and economic democratic elements had great influence on the economic ideas of the Euro -communist parties, but was also discussed in the social democratic parties of Western Europe, although not in Europe, was also relatively influential Communist Party (JCP ) as " Euro -Communist ".

The Euro communism was assessed by political scientists as the greatest political threat to the Soviet bloc, as it seemed to be more successful than the oktroyierte Soviet communism. However, the decline of the Euro-Communism did not begin with the collapse of state socialism, but already much earlier. In particular, the failure of the " Historic Compromise ", a coalition government of Christian Democrats and Communists euros in Italy was formative. It showed the limits of the Euro Communist approach to initiate a socialist transformation on elections and reform coalitions. The electoral successes of the Italian Communists, who had temporarily receive more than 30 % Stimmananteile, could be after this failed experiment does not achieve more in other states was the influence of Euro-Communism in the early 1980s massively.