Eurocommunism | Marxism, Socialism, Communism

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class="font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-15 mb-15 mt-20"> Table of Contents </div> <span class="toc-extra-link selected link-gray-900 mt-15"> Introduction </span> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eurocommunism/additional-info">References & Edit History</a> <a class="toc-extra-link link-gray-900" href="/facts/Eurocommunism">Related Topics</a> </div> <div class="mb-30 tlr-related-questions"> <div class="text-gray-900 p-5 pb-0 font-serif font-14 font-weight-bold mx-10 mb-15"> Related Questions </div> <ul> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/What-is-communism">What is communism?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/Which-countries-are-communist">Which countries are communist?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" href="/question/How-is-communism-different-from-socialism">How is communism different from socialism?</a> </li> <li class="link-gray-900 mb-15"><a class="" 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They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors.</div> </a> <div data-popper-arrow></div> </div> <span class="btn btn-link editor-link p-0 qa-byline-link gtm-byline font-12 byline-contributor text-decoration-underline"> The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</span></div> <div class="last-updated font-12 font-serif"> <a class="byline-edit-history" href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eurocommunism/additional-info#history" rel="nofollow">Article History</a> </div></div> </div> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button d-none d-sm-block js-sections-inline-button module-spacing btn d-lg-none"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <div class="d-flex d-sm-none flex-row"> <button class="d-flex d-lg-none btn btn-outline-blue border rounded-sm shadow-sm mobile-toc-button gtm-mobile-toc-inline-button js-sections-inline-button module-spacing"> <em class="material-icons mr-5 ml-n10 my-n5 md-icon" data-icon="toc"></em> Table of Contents </button> <button class="ai-ask-button btn border-2 ai-ask-button btn border-2 module-spacing btn-sm js-inline-ai-ask-button btn-outline-red-400 border-red-400 p-10 ml-5"> Ask the Chatbot a Question </button> </div> <div class="js-qf-module qf-module px-40 px-sm-20 py-15 mx-auto module-spacing font-14 bg-gray-50 rounded"> <div class="facts-list mt-10"> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Key People: </dt> <dd><a href="/biography/Santiago-Carrillo" topicid="97045">Santiago Carrillo</a></dd> <dd><a href="/biography/Enrico-Berlinguer" topicid="62243">Enrico Berlinguer</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> </div> <div class=""> <div class="js-fact mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3"> <dl> <dt>Related Topics: </dt> <dd><a href="/topic/communism" topicid="129104">communism</a></dd> <dd><a href="/topic/polycentrism" topicid="468362">polycentrism</a></dd> </dl> <button class="js-more-btn d-none btn btn-unstyled font-12 bg-gray-50" aria-label="Toggle more/less fact data"> <em class="js-content link-blue">(Show more)</em> </button> </div> <div class="text-center"> <a class="btn btn-sm btn-link p-0" href="/facts/Eurocommunism"> See all related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref240856"></span>Eurocommunism</strong>, <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="trend" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/trend" data-type="EB">trend</a> among European communist parties toward independence from <span id="ref240857"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Communist-Party-of-the-Soviet-Union" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Soviet Communist Party</a> doctrine during the 1970s and ’80s. With <span id="ref240858"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mikhail-Gorbachev" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Mikhail Gorbachev’s</a> encouragement, all communist parties took independent courses in the late 1980s, and by 1990 the term <em>Eurocommunism</em> had become moot.</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The term <em>Eurocommunism</em> was coined in the mid-1970s and received wide publicity after the publication of <em><span id="ref798842"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Eurocommunism-and-the-State" class="md-crosslink ">Eurocommunism and the State</a></em> (1977) by the Spanish communist leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Santiago-Carrillo" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Santiago Carrillo</a>. A spirit of independence among nonruling communist parties had already appeared, however, shortly before <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-II" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">World War II</a> with the growth of Popular Fronts in socialist politics and was afforded dramatic encouragement by the example of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josip-Broz-Tito" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Josip Broz Tito’s</a> Yugoslavia from 1948 on. The excesses of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Joseph-Stalin" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Joseph Stalin’s</a> regime and such Soviet repressions as the crackdown in Hungary in 1956 and the invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968 alienated many communists in the Western countries and tended to accelerate the movement toward independent policies and <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="autonomy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/autonomy" data-type="MW">autonomy</a>.</p><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">The Eurocommunist movement avowedly rejected the subordination of all communist parties to the once-prevalent Soviet doctrine of one <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="monolithic" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/monolithic" data-type="MW">monolithic</a> world communist movement. Instead, every party was expected to base its policies on the traditions and needs within its own country. The promotion of Eurocommunism seemed to coincide with the stagnation or decline of many European communist parties. Notably, in <span id="ref240859"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/France" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">France</a> the once-powerful <span id="ref240860"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/French-Communist-Party" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">French Communist Party</a>, which in the early postwar era was able to command about a third of the French popular vote, experienced a severe decline in later years. Its leader <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Marchais" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Georges Marchais</a> and his comrades briefly flirted with Eurocommunism in the late 1970s—without any popular success. On the other hand, the <span id="ref240862"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democrats-of-the-Left" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Italian Communist Party</a> remained <span id="ref240861"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/history-of-Italy" class="md-crosslink ">Italy</a>’s second largest party, partly by stressing its independence of Moscow. Its foreign contacts and sympathies seemed to lie more with the European social democrats and labour parties, and in 1991 it changed its name to Democratic Party of the Left (shortened to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Democrats-of-the-Left" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Democrats of the Left</a> in 1998). After the democratic revolutions of 1989, almost all the communist parties of eastern Europe became social democratic parties in spirit or name. Eurocommunism, in effect, had become the <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off eb" data-term="norm" href="https://www.britannica.com/dictionary/norm" data-type="EB">norm</a>.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; (function (d) { var scriptElement = d.createElement('script'); scriptElement.type = 'text/javascript'; scriptElement.async = true; scriptElement.src = "https://insitez.blob.core.windows.net/site/f780f33e-a610-4ac2-af81-3eb184037547.js"; var node = d.getElementById('_informizely_script_tag'); node.parentNode.insertBefore(scriptElement, node); } )(document); </script>  <script> window.ap3c = window.ap3c || {}; var ap3c = window.ap3c; ap3c.cmd = ap3c.cmd || []; ap3c.cmd.push(function() { ap3c.init('ZO4siT4cLwnykPnzZWJtd3Byb2Q', 'https://engage.email.britannica.com/'); ap3c.track({v: 0}); }); ap3c.activity = function(act) { ap3c.act = (ap3c.act || []); ap3c.act.push(act); }; var s, t; s = document.createElement('script'); s.type = 'text/javascript'; s.src = "https://engage.email.britannica.com/app.js"; t = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; t.parentNode.insertBefore(s, t); </script> <script class="marketing-page-info" type="application/json"> {"pageType":"Topic","templateName":"DESKTOP","pageNumber":1,"pagesTotal":1,"pageId":195643,"pageLength":348,"initialLoad":true,"lastPageOfScroll":false} </script> <script class="marketing-content-info" type="application/json"> [] </script> <script src="https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/js/libs/jquery-3.5.0.min.js?v=3.130.38"></script> <script type="text/javascript" data-type="Init Mendel Code Splitting"> (function() { $.ajax({ dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: 'https://cdn.britannica.com/mendel-resources/3-130/dist/topic-page.js?v=3.130.38' }); })(); </script> <script class="analytics-metadata" type="application/json"> {"leg":"D","adLeg":"D","userType":"ANONYMOUS","pageType":"Topic","pageSubtype":null,"articleTemplateType":"MEDIUM","gisted":false,"pageNumber":1,"hasSummarizeButton":false,"hasAskButton":true} </script> <script type="text/javascript"> EBStat={accountId:-1,hostnameOverride:'webstats.eb.com',domain:'www.britannica.com', json:''}; </script> <script type="text/javascript"> ( function() { $.ajax( { dataType: 'script', cache: true, url: '//www.britannica.com/webstats/mendelstats.js?v=1' } ) .done( function() { try {writeStat(null,EBStat);} catch(err){} } ); })(); </script> <div id="bc-fixed-dialogue"></div> </body> </html>

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Eurocommunism | Marxism, Socialism, Communism | Britannica