'Eurocommunism' - Implications for East and West (Paperback, 1978 ed.)

"Eurocommunism" is a catchy term used to describe a multi-faceted phenomenon, entailing the disengagement of European Communist parties from Soviet domination and their ostensible commitment to democratic political processes; and like most such terms, it may obscure as much as it illuminates if not carefully employed. Godson (Georgetown Univ.) and Haseler (London Polytechnic) actually try to avoid the term in the text, though unable to avoid its obvious lure in the title. Their primary aim is to assess the strength of Communist parties in Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, and Great Britain, irrespective of the particular "Eurocommunist" position of each, which they do with statistics on elections, party membership, trade union influence, etc. - all of which is more comprehensively covered in Neil McInnes' The Communist Parties of Western Europe (1975). This tedious process leads to the usual conclusion that the situation differs from country to country; from the electoral strength of the PCI to the trade union power of the CPGB. Many of the statistics are twisted polemically, as, for example, the notation that 65.6% of the electorate "rejected" the PCI in the last elections. Although they touch on it peripherally, they do not systematically study the relationship between social democracy and Eurocommunism doctrinally or historically, so that the split between the social-democratic north and the Communist-leaning south, which they presume, is not clarified. Since they are unable or unwilling to see any reason for Communist support other than coercion, unfocused protest, or trickery, they resort to such amorphous explanations of Communist growth as the relaxation in the Cold War, and call for an ideological campaign against human rights violations in the East to either divide or neutralize western CPs. A staid and superficial treatment of a badly-defined subject. (Kirkus Reviews)

General

Imprint:	Palgrave Macmillan
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	September 1978
First published:	1978
Authors:	Roy Godson • Stephen Haseler
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 9mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	144
Edition:	1978 ed.
ISBN-13:	978-0-333-25677-0
Categories:	Books > Social sciences > Politics & government > Political science & theory
LSN:	0-333-25677-8
Barcode:	9780333256770

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