Eurocommunism: From the Communist to the Radical European Left by Ioannis Balampanidis

Author:Ioannis Balampanidis [Balampanidis, Ioannis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Educational, Politics, Europe, Non-Fiction
ISBN: 9780815373322
Amazon: 0815373325
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

Papa, what is democratic centralism?

According to a story the French Communists used to tell, a communist’s child asks his father: “Papa, what is democratic centralism?” “Don’t bother me”, replies the father. “But Papa, what is democratic centralism?” insists the child. The father, wearily, says: “Go down into the yard”. The child goes down the five floors and walks out into the yard. The father goes over to the window and throws out a bucket of water. The child, drenched, says: “But Papa, that does not explain to me what democratic centralism is”. And the father answers: “Well, now see if you can throw the water at me”.26 One of the basic shifts in Eurocommunism was the relativization of the “totalitarian” (totalitaire) character of partisan engagement, though it was not yet a clear transition to the model of the “specialized” (specialisé ) party, in accordance with the distinction introduced by Maurice Duverger.27 The term “totalitarian” does not pertain here to the debate on political regimes but to the terms and the extent of people’s commitment to party life. The communist parties as “totalitarian” parties appear homogeneous, closed, with stringent procedures governing entry, participation, and exit, with a disciplined and rigorous framework for interpreting the world and with the various party activities occupying the entirety of the individual’s life, including his/her private life. They are Leninist parties, that is to say parties structured in a strictly hierarchical manner and above all in accordance with the rules of democratic centralism.

It is for this reason that all the Eurocommunist parties’ efforts to modernize themselves were translated at the level of intra-party life into a conflict over the model of democratic centralism. We have already mentioned Togliatti’s address to the PCI’s 8th Congress in 1956 where he warned against “smuggled” views on the formation of tendencies within the party (“liberal” as they were pejoratively characterized in the communist idiolect). As it continuously broadened its links with the masses, the Italian party tried to persuade the world that it fully accepted the principles of pluralism, including in its internal life. Even cadres such as Ingrao, who spoke of the transformation of the PCI into a “party constellation” that would gather around it a nebula of social, cultural etc. organizations without the “iron discipline imposed from above” which is not attractive for the middle social strata, for young people, or for intellectuals,28 found it difficult to accept the break from democratic centralism. It was not until the 1980s that the party was able to state explicitly that the democratic participation of citizens within it is a primary element of party identity.

For the PCF the boundaries were clearer. Already in the aftermath of 1968 it was rejecting left-wing criticism of the bureaucratic hardening of party structures. The withdrawal of the party into “anarchist positions” but also into “right wing opportunism” would mean relaxation of Leninist organization and discipline. In the highly important work Les Communistes et l’É tat, the struggle for a “pluralistic society” becomes an organic part of communist

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