Reflections On The People's Democracies

Abstract

The problem which underlies these reflections concerns all Communist parties, whether they are in power or in opposition. That problem is the difficulty, common to them all, of fashioning for themselves new longterm perspectives, and of forging new guidelines to replace those which have finally collapsed in the process of de-Stalinization. But while the problem is common to them all, it is in the countries where the Communists are in power that the present malaise has been most acutely felt, and where their inability to resolve the crisis has been most sharply underlined. This is why these general reflections are focused on the particular case of the East European People's Democracies.