Is Eurocommunism left wing or right wing?

On economic organisation Eurocommunism scores −08 on a scale from −10 (common ownership) to +10 (private property and markets). On social and cultural order it scores −06. A single left–right figure combines these and four further measurements that move independently, which is why the atlas reports six.

Is Eurocommunism authoritarian?

On the organisation of power, which measures whether authority is dispersed among institutions that can stop each other or concentrated in a single centre, Eurocommunism scores −04. Multi-party democracy, civil liberties, alternation in office accepted in advance.

Atlas / Organisations / Eurocommunism

Eurocommunism

PCI, PCE, PCF · 1968–1991 · Italy, Spain, France · Communist · Electoral party · coding confidence medium

−08ECcollective

−06CUpluralist

−04AUpluralist

+02SCcentral

−07IDuniversal

−03CHlawful

Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →

Core principles

Communist goals pursued inside parliamentary democracy, with an explicit break from the Soviet model.

Economic model

Nationalisation of key sectors, planning alongside markets, strong union power.

Organisation of powers

Multi-party democracy, civil liberties, alternation in office accepted in advance.

Reading note

Coded far from Leninism on authority and method while remaining close on economics — the same split as Menshevism sixty years earlier.

Check a claim about Eurocommunism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.

Open in the atlas

The evidence for every score

All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.

EC · Economic organisation · scored −08

Coded −8: nationalisation and planning within a market and a democracy.

Programme textThe PCI's historic compromise of 1973 proposed governing with the Christian Democrats.

CU · Social and cultural order · scored −06

Coded −6: secular and socially liberal, against the church in Italy and Spain.

Documented act or statuteThe PCI supported the 1974 divorce referendum and the 1978 abortion law.

AU · Organisation of power · scored −04

Coded −4: the explicit break from the Soviet model.

Documented act or statuteBerlinguer publicly repudiated Soviet intervention after the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia and again in 1981 over Poland.

SC · Scale of decision · scored +02

Coded +2: national roads to socialism inside existing states.

Programme textBerlinguer's historic compromise was addressed to Italian institutions, not to an international.

ID · Rule of membership · scored −07

Coded −7: internationalist while rejecting Soviet direction.

Documented act or statuteThe 1977 Madrid declaration by the Italian, French and Spanish parties asserted independence from Moscow.

CH · Method and tempo · scored −03

Coded −3: parliamentary and coalitional throughout.

Documented act or statuteThe PCE accepted the monarchy and the 1978 constitution during the Spanish transition.

Where it came from, and what came after

takes its doctrine fromBolsheviks
The western communist parties were founded as Comintern sections and broke with Moscow from 1968.

Nearest organisations by measured distance

Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.

Countries

France · Italy · Spain

Cite this page

Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.

McGrath, K. (2026). Eurocommunism. The Political Atlas, version 4.2. https://thepoliticalatlas.com/organisations/eurocomm/ (accessed 2026-08-01).

Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.