social life, controlled the trade unions, and had the sole right to put up
candidates in elections. However, because of the sheer size of the party, the
degree of organized and uniform control it exercised was sometimes ques-
tionable, although its command over education and the media helped it to
prevent any serious and widespread doubts about its legitimacy. Senior party
members gained many privileges, such as access to imported goods and better
educational opportunities for their children, providing yet another incentive
for membership. The party was always careful to make sure that it could check
the power of potential rivals. This was especially true of the armed forces, each
unit of which had, in addition to the military commander, a political officer
from the party who shared command. At the end of the party’s period of
dominance the number of political officers in the Soviet military was bigger
than the whole of Britain’s Army of the Rhine (i.e. over 55,000).
Once these monopoly powers were taken away, mainly by theglasnost
doctrine, the gates were opened for Soviet citizens to demonstrate their
feelings, which were more often indifference than loathing, but which made
retention of control impossible. The tentacles which the CPSU spread into
Soviet society were so complex that untangling its influence will take decades.
For example, the party owned a huge proportion of the entire real estate of the
Soviet Union, because legal ownership of land was forbidden to individuals
and most institutions. A major problem for any successor organization will be
that, though there is no legal reason why it cannot compete electorally under a
system ofpluralism, it is impossible to imagine what it could stand for, given
that itsraison d’eˆtrewas specifically the need to lead the people during the
period of thedictatorship of the proletariat. Despite this, ‘reformed’
communist parties under that or a similar name continue to be politically
viable not only in the former Soviet Union and some parts of Eastern Europe,
but also in Italy. They vary in their programme, but tend towards the sort of
state-intervention socialism of the social-democratic parties of the 1950s and
1960s.
Communitarianism
Communitarianism is a relatively recent development in political theory,
largely of American origin. It was formulated mainly from a right-wing
perspective by those dissatisfied withliberal democracy. In Europe, and
particularly the United Kingdom, it has been more attractive to those on the
centre left who wish to replace social democracy and its discredited
economic theories. There are many varieties of communitarian thought, some
complex and calling for highly experimental social re-ordering; some chal-
lenging economic theory at its roots by denying that economic actors
necessarily act rationally and by insisting that a desire to act in accordance
Communitarianism