Abstract
In this chapter I reflect on the historical debates and theoretical issues related to the participation of communist and socialist parties in government. In this regard, it provides a history of the Left stance towards government participation in Europe, a subject of stormy debate since the late nineteenth century. In so doing, I draw not only on (Euro)communist parties’ experience but South Europe socialists’ as well. The impact of the dissolution of the USSR on the communist parties’ strategy also is examined because it represents a milestone in their historical evolution. Finally, the chapter highlights the issues at the heart of these debates.
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Notes
- 1.
A historic bloc is a concept coined by A. Gramsci in his Prison Notebooks. According to him a historical bloc refers to “a historical congruence between material forces, institutions and ideologies, or broadly, an alliance of different class forces politically organized around a set of hegemonic ideas that give strategic directions and coherence to its constituent elements.”
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Katsourides, Y. (2016). The Left and Power: A Historical Retrospective. In: Radical Left Parties in Government. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-58841-8_2
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