Eurocommunism

Eu·ro·com·mu·nism

noun \ˌyu̇r-ō-ˈkäm-yə-ˌni-zəm\

Definition of EUROCOMMUNISM

: the communism especially of western European Communist parties that was marked by a willingness to reach power through coalitions and by independence from Soviet leadership

— Eu·ro·com·mu·nist noun or adjective

First Known Use of EUROCOMMUNISM

1976

Eurocommunism

noun    (Concise Encyclopedia)

Trend among European communist parties toward independence from Soviet Communist Party doctrine in the 1970s and '80s. The term, coined in the mid-1970s, received wide publicity after the publication of Santiago Carrillo's Eurocommunism and the State (1977). The Eurocommunist movement rejected the Soviet doctrine of one monolithic world communist movement and advocated instead that each country's communist party base its policies on the traditions and needs of its own country. With Mikhail Gorbachev's encouragement, all communist parties took independent courses in the late 1980s. Most of the European communist parties declined after the breakup of the Soviet Union.