EUROPEAN STUDIES teachers' series 2 CONTENTS Political Parties in the European Community The Rhine: European waterway The Quest for European Unity Manpower in the Common Market Published unde,. the auspices of the OentPe fo,. OontelllpOPaPy Eu,.opean Studies, Unltle,.sity of Sussex in association with the Eu,.opean Oollllllunity lnfo,.lllation SePvice European Studies, 2, 1968 Political Parties in the European Community The political parties of the Six European Community countries have enough in common to justify a joint study of them. In the first place, the six countries form an area united by several factors-a roughly equal level of economic development, important common experiences in recent history, and the influence of certain basic philosophical ideas such as Christianity and liberal democracy, so that the political life of each of the Six tends to be, at least to some extent, similar. Secondly, the experience of co-operat;'on within the political and economic structures created by the Six in the last twenty years-the European Coal and Steel Community, Euratom, and the European Economic Community, with the parliamentary assembly set up to control their work *-has led to close links between the political parties themselves. Thus the frequent meetings between the Socialists or the Christian Democrats of the Six mean that they often feel they have more in common with each other than with political parties of the same persuasion in countries outside the Six-and sometimes more than with rival parties within their own countries. The political parties of the Six may be seen as Willy Brandt in West Germany, Guy Mollet and representatives of four basic strands of political Franc;ois Mitterrand in France, and (until recently) thought: Socialism, Communism, Christian Democ­ Paul-Henri Spaak in Belgium-have a good deal in racy, and Gaullism. This list, like any other, is of common with the British Labour Party. Like the course open to question. Gaullism, for instance, is Labour Party, they originally grew out of the social naturally an almost exclusively French phenomenon, conditions of the nineteenth-century Industrial and has been much more important during the ten Revolution, and out of the conviction that the capi­ years of the Fifth Republic (1958-1968) than during talist order of society was economically inefficient the twelve years of the Fourth (1946-1958). Chris­ and morally indefensible, and should be replaced by tian Democracy, again, is a political creed which a new order based on the principles of Socialism. now appears less influential than it did a few years The most important difference between the British ago: the role of its official spokesmen in France has Labour Party and most of its continental counter­ greatly diminished, while the Christian Democrat parts was that the latter were all influenced in parties in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere are now varying degrees by the theories of Karl Marx. This forced to share political power with the representa­ means that whereas the British Labour Party, in tives of Socialism. The above list makes no mention becoming basically a reformist party, has simply of Liberalism, although Liberal or Radical politi­ ignored Clause Four of its constitution (committing cians have on the whole been more influential within the party to the public ownership of the means of the Six (especially in France and Belgium) than they production), the continental socialist parties have have in Great Britain, and the Liberal Group in fought long battles over whether they should revise the European Parliament is fairly strong. Nor does or retain their commitment to several aspects of it conclude the various branches of right-wing poli­ the political and philosophical doctrine of Marxism. tical thought represented by the Monarchists in For instance, the French Socialist Party immediately Italy, or by the National Democratic Party (NPD) after the Liberation refused to make common cause in Germany. with left-wing Catholics, on the grounds that the Catholic Church could never be a respectable ally for a progressive party; while in West Germany the Social Democratic Party's adoption of a reformist pro­ The-Socialists gramme at its conference in Bad Godesberg in 1959 represented a fairly dramatic break with a tradition It may be helpful to start our survey with the of Marxist party programmes going back almost political parties representing Socialism, partly a century. because this 'political family' was the first to give The Socialist parties of the Six normally get be­ rise to organised parties, and partly because the tween 25 and 40 per cent of the votes at elections. other 'political families', in varying degrees, came They normally draw main voting strength from into existence as reactions against it. industrial workers (in Germany from the great bulk The political parties representing Western Euro­ of the working class, in France and Italy-where pean Socialism-sometimes bearing the formal title there is more serious competition from the Commu­ of 'Social Democratic Party' and led by such men as nists-from skilled and white-collar workers). They * See forthcoming European Studies No. 3 "The European Parliament". 1 are correspondingly represented in the Parliaments organization by Hitler (many of its leaders fled to of the six capitals. Russia and were later liquidated in Stalin's purges), Unlike the British Labour Party or the Social and its popularity in West Germany has been reduc­ Democratic Parties of Scandinavia, Socialist parties ed to vanishing-point by the nature of the Russian within the Six have never been strong enough to occupation after the war and of the Russian-imposed hold power alone, but they have repeatedly taken Communist regime in East Germany. Precisely a large share of the power in coalition Governments. because the Communists in Federal Republic stand - In France, they held office with Christian little chance in free elections, it has been widely Democrats and Communists in the immediate post­ argued that the legal decision of the German Federal war period, and later in a series of centre coalitions, court in 1956, declaring the Communist Party illegal, sometimes under Socialist leadership. was politically unwise, and should be reversed. In - In Italy, they have joined in various coalitions, September 1968 a new Communist Party was in in which the Socialist influence has been particularly fact set up in West Germany, and because it declares strong in the last four years. its acceptance of the constitution, will apparently - In West Germany-though here the Socialists not this time be banned. have really made their greatest mark in local govern­ Outside the German Federal Republic, however, ment-they have joined in the 'Grand Coalition' the influence of Communism remains stronger. In which has governed the Federal Republic since the France and Italy, in particular, Communist Parties end of 1966, in which the party leader Willy Brandt have succeeded in winning between one quarter and is Vice-Chancellor and Foreign Minister. one third of the votes at most of the post-war elec­ In terms of policy, the Socialist spokesmen in tions, and as it has been difficult for other parties these coalitions, and the Socialist parties in times of of the Left to combine with them, this has resulted opposition, have stood for the traditional demands in a permanent shifting of the balance of political of the left. This has meant, to some extent, the power to the Right. In France, it is true, the Commu­ public ownership of industry (which has been put nists participated in government (part of the time into effect for the basic industries of most of the under de Gaulle) in the immediate post-war years, six countries, in many cases at about the time when but since then they have restricted their role to the post-war Labour Government was carrying it becoming a pressure group for the interests of their out in Britain). It has meant policies of social secu­ voters-and also for their large-scale trade-union rity and social progress, such as Health Insurance, membership-on the extreme left. old-age benefits, and-particularly in France-legal It is no longer strictly true to call the Western guarantees of equal pay for women and of several European Communist Parties 'revolutionary': this weeks' paid holiday every year for all workers. And was confirmed in May 1968 by the remarkably anti­ it has meant generally, a redistribution of income revolutionary attitude of the French Communist in favour of the worse-off sections of the community. Party and-perhaps more significant in the long Even though they have never held power alone, run-these Communist Parties have in recent years the Socialist parties of the Six have been fairly taken an increasingly positive attitude towards Euro­ successful in persuading their coalition partners to pean integration as represented by the EEC. Having accept and act on these policies. denounced European integration in the 1950's as a capitalist plot to attack the living standards of the working class, the Communist Parties of Italy and The Communists France have come, since the beginning of the 1960's, to accept that integration can make positive contri­ The Communist parties of Western Europe, like butions to economic and social development. They the strong influence of Marxism, represent an aspect have therefore sought representation in the Euro­ of the continental Left which distinguishes it from pean Parliament as a way of influencing this devel­ the left wing in Britain. Whereas the Bolshevik opment, and their trade union organizations have Revolution of 1917 had only a marginal impact on sought representation in the Community's Economic the British Labour movement-splitting away only and Social Council. a limited fraction of the left of the Labour Party The appeal of Communism in France and Italy and of other left-wing groups to form the Commu­ remains strong-partly for traditional reasons, since nist Party of Great Britain-the situation in most these parties represent a genuine tradition of 'revo­ continental countries was different.