AMERICA'S OSTPOLITIK

...and the potential for the reemergence of powerful Communist parties in Spain and Greece have given rise to alarm among Western European and American policy-makers...

...the persistent efforts of the French Communist party...

...First, most of the major Communist parties of Western Europe (excepting only the Luxembourg and Portuguese parties from among those with the potential to win a share in government) have grown increasingly R. NEAL TANNAHILL teaches in the Political Science Department ot Rice University, Houston...

...While the Western powers should not undercut non-Communist allies, they should lay the groundwork for accommodating their policies to a possible entry of the French and Italian Communist parties into their respective governments and begin preparing to make the best of the situation...

...Undeniably, the advance of the Western European CPs does stand as a specter to Western democrats...

...The results of this would be to drive the Western parties back toward Moscow for economic and psychological relief...

...Likely, experience in office will weaken the Com4 March 1977:142 munists' electoral support as protest voters turn elsewhere and reduce the intensity of the CPs' support as Communist True Believers see that their heroes are mere mortals, too...

...provide the Western Communists with a handy excuse with which to explain the failures of their policies to their supporters...

...In the face of very difficult economic and political problems, the Communists will inevitably fall short of the expectations of their most fervent supporters...

...If Communists win a share of political power in Italy, France, or elsewhere in Western Europe, it will not be a panacea for the continent's political ills...

...While the potential threat of the Communist advance should not be ignored or discounted, Western democrats, particularly Western policy-makers, should not allow it to cloud their vision to the positive potential that the electoral rise and political evolution of Western Europe's Communist parties offer for the resolution of many of the continent's more pressing sociopolitical problems...

...Thirdly, winning a share of national power electorally will tend to integrate Western European Communists into the democratic political system and give Communist leaders a personal stake in the system...

...Short of military action, there is relatively little they can do to prevent electoral advances by the Communists or their entry into governments in Italy, France and perhaps elsewhere...

...Nevertheless, Western policy-makers must take care not to allow the threats of the Communists' rise totally to obscure the potential benefits...

...For better and fo r worse, Communists in government will likely perform more like the other politicians in the eyes of both their strongest supporters and most dedicated opponents...

...depict the Western Communists as martyrs to legions of frustrated supporters and sympathizers...

...This development could mean the d~nouement to whatever is left of Moscow's vision of a united world movement, the creation of an alternative form of European Communism for Eastern European Communists to compare with the Soviet brand of Communism, and the mitigation of the direct threat of the CPs to Western security (although Communist disarmament policies could still pose an indirect danger...

...Otherwise, by illtempered reaction they may not only forfeit the possible benefits, but further increase the likelihood that many of their fears will be realized...

...In at least four respects, the ascendance of the Western CPs offers the prospect for positive development t o which Western policy-makers should be alert to encourage and careful not to stifle...

...Commonweal: 143...

...As for Casaroli, he will probably continue his activity in Eastern Europe, especially in those countries where the Church is farthest from a solution...

...Indeed, from the standpoint of a Western liberal democrat, the dangers and the risks may well outweigh the potential advantages...

...For American and Western European policy-makers, the rise of the Communist parties of Western Europe is quite frustrating...

...the political strength of Communist parties in Finland, Iceland and Luxembourg...

...Potentially, the entry of Communist parties into the political order will further serve to bind the Communists' proletarian supporters to liberal democracy to the benefit of both the workers, whose problems have been too often ignored by the bourgeois parties, and the state, many of whose economic problems will require organized labor's cooperation for solution...

...One of the major Western European political problems of the twentieth century has been that of peacefully and constructively bringing the working class into the political system...

...Secondly, tenure in office will serve to demythologize the CPs, dissipating the utopian aura which, in the eyes of many of their supporters, surrounds them...

...Carefully, the Western powers should begin constructing bridges to the Western Communist parties both to encourage their continued aloofness from Moscow and to build up some political leverage of their own...

...Their success will depend partly on the policies of their governments and partly on their own ability to define, as Cardinals Wyszynski and Lekai are trying to do, the role of Catholics in a Communist society...

...As the proceedings of the recent meeting of 29 European Communist Parties in East Berlin testify, the Berlinguers, Marchaises and Carrillos of Western Europe are now willing boldly to proclaim their parties' independence, even to the face of their former Soviet mentors...

...The surest way for the Western powers to lose these potential benefits is to isolate the Western Communists and punish any country that suffers them to share national power with economic sanctions (which, of course, is apparently the policy that was adopted by both Washington and Bonn...

...When Communist parties achieve political power through electoral processes, the party, as it were, tends to develop an electorally-oriented approach to problems...

...Consequently, a long history of electoral competition (as in Italy, but not in Portugal) will tend to socialize the Communist party into the system...

...His "champagne period" is probably passing, but his influence will continue to be felt...

...In the final analysis, Communist political success or failure will-hinge most greatly on factors upon which outside governments have little control: the perceived performance and image of Communists and non-Communists, the alliance strategies of socialist and other non-Communist parties, and domestic political, economic and social conditions...

...Consequently, one potential result of Communist participation in government will be a decline of ideological intensity among both Communist supporters and anti-Communists...

...Finally, the inclusion of the Communist parties into the political system will help to integrate Western Europe's working class into the political structures of Europe's democracies...

...With the ascendance and domination of younger generations of leaders, militants and electors whose psychological ties to Moscow are far weaker than those of their elder comrades who grew up politically in an age when the Soviet Union stood as a bastion against fascism, Western CPs are adopting international postures designed to advance their own domestic electoral and alliance strategies...

...I AMERICA'S OSTPOLITIK R. NEAL TANNAHILL The rise of Commtu~i~t parties in Western Europe The steady advance of the Italian Communist party: the rapid ascension of the Portuguese Communists...

...Further, in the face of conditions over which they have little influence, American and Western European policy-makers must take care that by ill-conceived reactions they do not undermine the potential benefits (from their standpoint) inherent in Communist participation in government that we have outlined above...

...Communists in power could mean an increase in Soviet influence in Western EurOpe and the possible erosion of liberal democratic freedoms and institutions, either at the hands of the Communists themselves (as in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and Portugal in 1974-1975) or at the hands of an ill-tempered reaction (as in Chile in 1973...

...Henry Kissinger spoke darkly of the danger of one Western European democracy after another falling to Communism and Helmut Schmidt gravely warned the Italians about economic sanctions should Communists be allowed to enter the national government...

...Once they share national political power, however, it is very likely that the Communists will prove not to be the miracle workers that they claim to be...

...In Great Britain, the Low Countries and much of Scandinavia this has been accomplished through large social democratic parties, but in much of Southern Europe, the industrial proletariat has yet to be completely reconciled to the political system...

...On the other hand, Communist entry into national political office will likely not lead to the unmitigated catastrophes that the more rabid anti-Communists predict...

...To avoid these unpleasant repercussions and to maximize the potential for the positive development of the Western Communist parties, American and Western European policy-makers need to pursue a policy of accepting those things which they cannot change and encouraging the Western Communists to move along positive lines...

...If the Communists of Western Europe do achieve power constitutionally, the Western powers should behave prudently and cautiously so as to discourage o~erreaction in either the international money market or from the domestic military establishment, either of which would heighten domestic instability, furthering the danger to democratic freedoms and the democratic process...

...In opposition, the Communists can claim the superiority of their ideas and ideology and their supporters can and often do regard Communism as a panacea for all economic, social and political ills...

...and justify and intensify latent and not-so-latent anti-American and anti-democratic sentiments among the Communists...

...As parties of government, because of their strengthened domestic base, their need to maintain electoral support, and their desire not to alienate non-Communist government partners, Western European CPs will likely maintain and even reinforce their independence from Moscow...

...Furthermore, electoral success will reward party leaders with cabinet posts and other offices which they would be reluctant to risk by attempting to dismantle the democratic system...

...independent of the Soviet Union...