An Attempt to Define and Classify the Radical Left Parties in Southern Europe. The Emergence of an Anti-Capitalist Family

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the definition and classification of the relevant radical left parties in Southern Europe today. The underlying hypothesis tested here is the concomitant process of the collapse of the communist family and the emergence of a new anti-capitalist family in Western Europe since 1989, focusing on the Southern Europe context (De Waele, Vieira, forthcoming). Despite a common socio-economic matrix – the anti-capitalism – three components can be detected: communism, red-green alliance and left of social democracy. Articulated around two main axes – communist identity and political space – our typology aims at drawing up a precise table of the anti-capitalist left, through its various political orientations and its positioning on the political chessboard. To test this hypothesis, we propose four variables: definitional, electoral, European and systemic. First, we establish a classification of the various components of the anti-capitalist left in Western Europe. Second, we observe the electoral evolutions of the anti-capitalist family in Southern Europe in comparison with Northern and Continental Europe. Third, we explore the electoral and political situation of these parties at the European level. To this end, we assess the progressive structuring of the European anti-capitalist partisan network at the EU level. Fourth, we analyse the role and the systemic positioning of the anti-capitalist parties within their national political systems using three indicators: the type of relations maintained with the State, with the other parties and with the civil society.