12
PARTISAN REVIEW
European Communist parties. And o ne could say Iha t the degree o f
success of Euro-communism, or its change to a specifi call y Western
European communi sm, might onl y be measured when, in the end ,
the Euro-Socialists and the Euro-Communists fu se. restoring such
unity as the European working class movement and Socia list parties
had before the grea t brea k a t the end of the Second World War. I
think we also have to say tha t the recent changes in these parties
refl ect certain long- term changes in the situa ti on o f Wes tern Eu–
ropean politi cs. These are new fo rms of socia li sm, some of them
cla iming descent from Marxism , some o f them nOI.
It
is o bvious tha t
we have reached the limits of a ce rta in red istributive or welfarist
model of cap itali sm , limits which were reached probably even before
the present economi c and resource cr isis made itself felt.
There are other factors. It is, o r should be, quite clear, even to
the mos t orthodox o r dogma ti c o f Marxists, tha t the Western
European populations-and in these populations we should cer–
ta inl y have to include the Greeks, the Spani ards, and the o th er La tin
popul ations - are committed to the idea of parliamentary democracy.
Some of them may wish to go beyond it, deepen parliamentary
in stitutions, o r suppl ement them. There is a division in these
populations over sociali sm, o r diHerent fo rms of economi c redistri–
bution, but the commitment to pa rli amentary socia lism, civil lib–
erty , and the like seems so stron g that no party claiming
to
oppose
it could hope to do very we ll. Secondly, I think it wou ld be generally
agreed that as a model, on the sixtieth anni versay o f the Soviet
revo luti on , the Soviet Uni on is no t, to say the leas t, compelling.
Indeed, th ere can ha rdl y be an y p lace in Western Europe in whi ch
the Soviet Uni on 's socia l achi evements or political sys tem can be
looked
to
as a model, and indeed th e problem for the so-call ed Euro–
Communi sts o r Western Communist parties is how
to
distan ce
themselves with as much elegance and speed as they can fr om th e
Soviet Uni on . At the same time, there has been a genera l loosening
in interna tion a l politics, which means tha t the United States no
longer necessa rily appears
to
these countri es, even to those on the
Left, as an imperi a list superpower, but as a stru gglin g and interes t–
ing democra ti c society. There has been , I think , a change in thi s
res pect,
to
the extent tha t the American model of culture, if not
American politics, has a considerable a ttract ion for segments of
Euro pean society, particu la rl y fo r the European Left , including
some of the Communist parties. That much sa id , let's move on
to
the
specificity of Euro-communism.
It
seems to me Ihat there are three
