EURO-COMMUNISM
41
the Social Demorra ti c parl y who came f!'Om the Socialist movement
and who arc interested in a different version o f soc ial democracy. But
I want to get to that in a minute. To Bl a ir Clark 's question , wh a t
wou ld the Soviet
l
ni on do to influence European Communist
parties in government , I h ave severa l a nswers. One is o f course that
those parties in government in coa liti on s would be bound to
negoti a te fo reign po li cy with their coa liti on partners.
If
they were
o ~t vo ted
o r th ere were severe disagreements, they
would either have to ma ke th e government themsel ves, if th ey h ad
the politica l resources to do so in terms o f parli amentary resources,
or go out o f th e government. Second ly, there have been epi sodes in
whi ch , fo r example, the Sov iet government a t one point after the
in vas ion o f Czekoslovakia a nd crushing o f th e Dubcek experiment
attempted ve ry severe interventi on s in the Ita li an pa rt y and simpl y
did not get anyp lace.
Other things being equa l, the capacit y of the Sov iet Uni on to
exercise undue influen ce on Communist parties in Western Eu–
ropean governments would be apprecia bl y less th an the present
capacit y o f the Un it ed States, exercised a ll the time, to influ en ce
governments.
It
seems to me th at three major cha ll en ges o f a sys tema ti c kind
were rea ll y ra ised . One came from th e representa tives o f the New Left
present h ere, tha t is, Di ck Sennett, And y Arato, Di ck I Iowa rd . Th ey
were say in g, if I can summa rize, tha t we cann o t expect tha t social
confli ct in adva n ced society w ill ta ke forms which can be dea lt w ith
very eas ily eith er by a soc ia l democra ti c model of parliamentary
socia li sm or by th e Leninist or modifi ed Lenini st con cep ti ons of the
Communist panics. And th en pa rti cu la rl y, the adopti on by th e
French Pa rty-the Ita li an Pa rt y is much more cauti ou s a bout thi s–
of th e so-called sta te monopoly capita li sm theory simpl y leads them
int o a dead -end, th eoreti ca ll y and politically. Beca use this a ffo rds
neith er a n ana lys is of the rea lit y of contemporary capit a li sm nor an y
form of demorra ti c po pul a r acti on which can lead out o f it, o r which
can develop n ew in stitution s. This is a sys tema tic criti cism of th e
Communist parti es from , let us say, the democra ti c Left. This is
precisel y th e po int a t which I think Carl Gershma nn bro ught in th e
spectre tha t thi.s was ut opia n , and he jo in ed therefore to the Com–
muni sts as en em ies o f the sys tem substanti a l fr acti ons of the Eu–
ropean Socialists. I suppose, Carl, you meant people \\'h o by no
mean s h a\'e a pact with th e Communists but who a rc in fact seekin g
precisely these n ew form s.
The o th er cha llen ge we wo uld ha ve to dea l with came from
