24
PARTISAN REVIEW
men to talk about thi s ques ti on o f Euro-communism, when in fact
what we are talking about is three o f the major civili za ti ons of the
Western world, the Spanish, the Italian , and the French. We sit in a
city which is positively percolating with people who come from
those countri es, yet none of them is here toni ght as far as I can see.
It
seems to be part of the English-speaking approach to the La tin
countries. They a re not rea ll y to be trusted to know about their own
circumstances or anybody else's. Clearly the onl y op ini on s about
them that matter are those which come from people who spea k
Engli sh . That seems to me to be unfortuna te, for a t least two reason s
that are significant in thi s di scuss ion toni ght : One is tha t it encour–
ages us, particularly Americans, in o ur inclinati ons to regard
Europe as a whole. To see Europe as a single entity ra ther than as a
series of cultures, the kind of mi stake which is so signifi cant in
Ameri can di sappointment about the European economic commu–
nity and the failure to produce the kind of European federalism tha t
was supposed to emerge when the United States sa id tha t it should.
But it is also significant because it means tha t we do not all ot, in this
kind of di scu ssion,
to
each of the countri es about whi ch we are
speaking, tha t kind of understanding of its sepa ra te signifi cant
political culture which is of the grea test importance.
I
think
I
have
got a rea l difference of op ini on from the two speakers, both of whom
seem to feel that democracy in European Communist parties is a
significant ques ti on . Tha t does not seem to me a t all impo rant.
Who can expect a Communist part y to be democratic? Laq ueur
is quite ri ght. The rea ll y important question is whether, if an y of
these parties came to power, or within striking distance of power, it
would act as a tool of the Soviet Uni on . o t whether, in the local
context it is essentiall y democra ti c, either in its own structure or in
the way it a ttempts to run the na ti onal government. Democracy is
not an entirely frequent occurrence in Mediterranean societi es, and
I
would not be at all surpri sed if, when a Communist party came to
power, in any of the countri es we are talkin g about , it proved to be as
di ctatorial as Mr. Laqueur has sugges ted. But tha t is no t the
important ques tion , when one is looking a t thi s from thi s di stance.
The important questi on is wh ether the Soviet Uni on is go ing to be a
part of this pa rticular Party, or whether it is likely to be as res istant
to
the Sovi et Union as so many of the exi sting Communist govern–
ments tha t are not under direct Soviet milita ry contro l have proven
to be.
So then the essenti al ques ti on s a re: Wha t are the politi cal
