WEST EUROPEAN COMMUNIST PARTIES: KAUTSKYISM AND/OR DEREVOLUTIONIZATION?

In the 1970s, the Eurocommunist phenomenon dominated the political scene. The West European communist parties declared that their strategy would be constitutional and that the deep transformation which they intended to undertake in their nations would be accomplished within the parliamentary democratic framework. Their strategy consists of involving and obtaining the consensus of the majority of the population in this peaceful process of transformation. To achieve their goal, they have proclaimed their independence from their previous center of domination, Moscow, and emphasized their national characters. More importantly, they have abandoned many of the fundamental concepts of Leninist doctrine. The basic thesis of this dissertation is that Eurocommunism has rejected "insurrectionary politics" as a means of coming to power. In opposition to the Eurocommunists' assertion that their strategy if inspired by Gramsci's teachings, the contention of this study is that they have adopted Kautsky's conceptions, not Gramsci's theoretical formulations. The Eurocommunist strategy, contrary to the one prescribed by the founders of Marxism and by Lenin, is primarily parliamentary. Like classical Social Democracy, Eurocommunism, despite its intention of transforming capitalism, has ended up managing it. Unlike Social Democracy as it has developed since World War II, Eurocommunism's proclaimed objective remains the establishment of a socialist society. However, this dissertation asserts that this realization will be difficult to attain; history has indicated the repeated phenomenon of revolutionary movements becoming deradicalized in the process of attempting political integration. West European communist parties, like Social Democratic parties in the past, have been forced to operate within the confines of the very system they are attempting to change radically. Revolutionary means of establishing Communism in Europe have failed to undermine the legitimacy of parliamentary democracy.