The 1989 Revolution in the Soviet Union had a profound impact on Communist parties in Western Europe. Communists in France and Italy differed significantly in their leadership responses to the Revolution. Bull identifies three possible responses: "first, remaining an unchanged 'more orthodox' communist party; second, becoming a 'refounded' communist party; and third, changing into a non-communist party of the left." French and Italian Communist parties combined represented the entire range of responses.
The seeds of division in West European communist parties were sown prior to the 1989 Soviet Revolution when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power in 1985. Gorbachev's regime changed the nature of the relationship of many West European communist parties with Moscow. Disagreement arose over the concept of perestroika and the proposed reform of the socialist system. West European communist parties who supported perestroika and Moscow no longer were considered pro-Stalinist. They could modernize their party lines without seeming disloyal to the communist cause: "Before 1985 liberalisation had gone hand in hand with detachment from Moscow; after 1985 it drew on the example and support of Moscow."
The Communist party in France is the Parti communiste francaise (PCF). The history of the PCF is characterized by "a series of alternating phases, hard-line and uncompromising phases followed by conciliatory phases." As with other Communist parties, the PCF for decades was organized under a system of "Democratic Centralism" in which the higher level candidates are elected by the rank-and-file. The primary organizing unit of the PCF is the "cell." The preferred method of joining the party is at a workplace cell since the PCF sees itself as "the spearhead of the class struggle and in the front line of militant action at work." Cells are where the local party activities are conducted. Related cells are often grouped into Sections...