EUROCOMMUNISM FOUR YEARS ON.

Today the interest in Eurocommunism is declining. Between 1976 and the end of 1978 some observers had seen it as a new sort of Communism characterised by a readiness to adopt the principles and practices of Western democracies and by an emphasis on independence from the Soviet Union and its socialist model. The author examines the tactical reasons for and the scope of this "liberal Communism" and underlines that the PCI has gone much further than the PCF. In any case this liberal Communism has preserved its Communist identity. Eurocommunism represents a further step in the process of polycentric decentralisation of the International Communist Movement. It does not, however, constitute a threat to the hegemony of the Soviet Union in Eastern Europe. A modus vivendi seems to have been established between orthodox and Euro-communisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]