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Coversheet for Thesis in Sussex Research Online A University of Sussex DPhil thesis Available online via Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/ This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the Author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the Author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Please visit Sussex Research Online for more information and further details Party Organisation and Party Adaptation: Western European Communist and Successor Parties Daniel James Keith UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, April, 2010 ii I hereby declare that this thesis has not been and will not be, submitted in whole or in part to another University for the award of any other degree. Signature :……………………………………… iii Acknowledgements My colleagues at the Sussex European Institute (SEI) and the Department of Politics and Contemporary European Studies have contributed a wealth of ideas that contributed to this study of Communist parties in Western Europe. Their support, generosity, assistance and wealth of knowledge about political parties made the SEI a fantastic place to conduct my doctoral research. I would like to thank all those at SEI who have given me so many opportunities and who helped to make this research possible including: Paul Webb, Paul Taggart, Aleks Szczerbiak, Francis McGowan, James Hampshire, Lucia Quaglia, Pontus Odmalm and Sally Marthaler. Amanda Simms, Christine Kidman and Julie Carr also helped me many times along the way. I owe a special thanks to my supervisors Tim Bale and Dan Hough for providing so much support, inspiration, expertise and advice. The opportunity to work with them has been a privilege and they brought a wealth of wisdom to this project. Without their excellent comments and clarity of thought this research would not have been possible. I also owe a great deal to the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) who funded this research (award PTA–030–2006–00179). The ESRC’s financial support was vital for this research to take place. I am also very grateful to my fellow research students at SEI, whose enthusiasm, kindness, suggestions and friendship made conducting this research so much easier. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with all the research students and visiting researchers in our offices in C311 and Friston 245. Special thanks go out to Simona Guerra, John FitzGibbon, Stijn van Kessel, Martine Huberty, Amy Busby, Ariadna Rippoll Servent, Emelie Lilliefeldt, Ed Phelps, Anna Sydorak-Tomczyk, Ed Maxfield, Emma Sanderson-Nash, Erin Baumann, Ezel Tabur, Gemma Loomes, Monika Bil, Zerrin Torun, Katherine Neilson, Tom Akehurst, Ruth Johnson, Shilpa Modi, Mark Bennister, Micheal Ko β, Emanuele Massetti, Sobrina Edwards, Elefterios Zenerian, Theodora Heath Klountzou, Lyubka Savkova and Tania Verge. I would like to say thank you to all those who have worked so hard to establish such a lively research student community here at SEI and in particular Paul Taggart and Aleks Szczerbiak. In addition I am indebted to all of the interviewees who took the time to speak with me and the party officials who helped during periods of fieldwork, arranging iv interviews as well as locating and translating party documents. Stijn van Kessel and Leonie Timmers also helped me a great deal with translating documents and Jaco van Kessel gave me so much help during fieldwork in the Netherlands. Discussions with experts including Carlos Cunha, Martin Bull, Brian Hanley, Brian Palmer, Richard Dunphy, Gerrit Voerman and Paul Lucardie, were also very helpful. I am grateful for them for sharing their insight with me. This research would not have taken place without a great deal of encouragement from Mrs Brain, Peter Liddell, Jasbinda Badesha, Sarah Cullen, Roy Cullen, Simon Thomson and Mark Wickham-Jones. A special note of thanks goes to my friends whose support and inspiration helped me at so many times as I conducted this research and especially: Bill, Isobel, Arcadia, Raphaella, Perri and Charlie Woods; Linda Smith, Kevin, Lorna, Joe and Hannah Banfield; David Percival, David Skeats, Rachel Dutton, Gordon Skeats, Andrew and Lauren Rose, Joe Mottershead, Adam and Eleanor Rezazadeh, Russell Ward and Bleuen Boivin; Annie and Clive Rees; Audrey Waite; Colin, Julia and Alex Liebmann, Sam Batchelor, Melissa Edwards, David Saunders, Stephen Morgan, Richard Rose, Tom Martin, David Rosenfeld, Brendan Whitmarsh, Billy Joe Clarke, Trevor Twigg and Sue and Marchant Barron. Above all I would like to thank my family who helped me so much – especially my grandparents Trevor and Doris Keith and Terry and Stella Diegan who will always be my heroes; Alec, Trisha, Charley, Lauren and George Keith; Keith, Linda, Caroline and Phil Davis; Teresa Pearce; Patrick, Micheline and Sean Diegan, Harold and Louie Wood; Auntie Madge and Auntie Bertha. Most of all I am indebted to Ian, Catherine, Helen and Alexander Keith for their help, support and love. v UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX DANIEL JAMES KEITH THESIS SUBMITTED FOR DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY PARTY ORGANISATION AND PARTY ADAPTATION: WESTERN EUROPEAN COMMUNIST AND SUCCESSOR PARTIES SUMMARY This study examines the development of Western European Communist parties (WECPs) and their post-Communist successor parties. These parties had always adapted in surprising ways as they struggled in political systems that they sought to overthrow. Following the collapse of Communism in 1989 in central and Eastern Europe (CEE) they continued to amaze. Some reformed themselves dramatically, sacrificing or transforming their policies in search of office and votes. A number of them moved into mainstream politics and became more influential as other parties brought them into governing coalitions or they expanded at elections. Several WECPs disappeared but others resisted compromising their orthodox Marxism- Leninism. These hard-line Stalinist parties managed to remain significant players in their party systems. This in-depth study analyses the reasons behind the divergent trajectories of five WECPs and their post-Communist successor parties in the Netherlands, Sweden, Ireland and Portugal. It does this by importing and refining an analytical framework developed to explain the diverse adaptation of Communist parties in CEE. Extensive primary research based on elite interviews and the analysis of party programmes is used to evaluate the framework’s usefulness and its implications for studying the trajectories of Communist parties in Western Europe (and beyond). There are two main empirical findings from this research. First, it was elites with experience in working with groups and institutions outside their parties that led efforts to reform WECPs, just as in CEE successor parties. Second, mid-level elites in vi WECPs were not necessarily hardliners bent on resisting reform. Their leaders could be extremely effective in advocating reforms and convincing members into supporting them, meaning that organisational democratisation could be compatible with reform. This meant that organisational centralisation was not as necessary as it was in the successor parties in CEE. Moreover, reformist party leaders had not, like their counterparts in CEE, learnt to be centralisers through past struggles over reform. When party leaders did pursue elitist strategies to promote programmatic transformation this usually took place through shifting power to the party in public office rather than central office. vii Contents Acknowledgements iii Summary v List of tables x Abbreviations xiii Chapter One: Introduction 1 1.1 Setting the scene 1 1.2 The literature on Western European Communist Parties 3 1.3 Searching for a framework to analyse WECPs 11 1.4 Explaining the adaptation of CEE successor parties 12 1.5 Redeeming the Communist past 17 1.6 Importing and adapting Grzymała-Busse’s framework for use in the 25 West 1.7 Research questions and hypotheses 28 1.8 Methodology and operationalisation 34 1.9 Indicators and measures 38 1.10 Case selection 40 1.11 Contributions of the research 45 1.12 Main findings of the research 46 Chapter Two: The Portuguese Communist Party – Lessons in 48 Resisting Change 2.1 Introduction 48 2.2 The PCP’s rigid democratic centralism 50 2.3 Elite advancement in the Portuguese Communist Party 53 2.4.1 Crushing the reformers 55 2.4.2.1 The Group of Six 55 2.4.2.2 The Group of Six and democratic centralism 56 2.4.3.1 The case of Zita Seabra 58 2.4.3.2 Zita Seabra and democratic centralism 59 2.4.4.1 The Third Way 59 viii 2.4.4.2 The Third Way and democratic centralism 61 2.4.5.1 The Renovadores 64 2.4.5.2 The Renovadores and democratic centralism 67 2.5 Conclusion 74 Chapter Three: The Dutch Socialist Party – the Centralisers 78 3.1 Introduction 78 3.2 Breaking with Mao 80 3.3 The great leap forward 83 3.4 A new centralised organisation 1991– 87 3.5 Social democratisation 95 3.6 New challenges 102 3.7 Conclusion 104 Chapter Four: The Swedish Left Party – the Democratisers 108 4.1 Introduction 108 4.2 Battling the old guard 110 4.3 Democratic stagnation 115 4.4 Parliamentarisation 121 4.5 Lars Ohly’s leadership: Democratisation and parliamentarisation 134 4.6 Conclusion 140 Chapter Five: the Irish Workers’ Party and Democratic Left – the 143 Democratisers 5.1 Introduction 143 5.2 Building a vanguard party
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