ABSTRACT
There is a sense in which Achille Occhetto's announcement can be seen as the logical culmination of a lengthy historical process. Occhetto's confident mood in the wake of the 18th Congress reflected his success at imposing his new course at the party assembly. The 18th Congress approved momentous changes in three crucial areas: party discipline, its communist identity, and the composition of the party leadership. Militant communists all over Italy knew that the party was losing its leading role among the organized working class, with young people, with professionals and skilled workers. Italy's Radical Party, which is presided over by a Gandhi with a taste for high living, the ebullient, chain-smoking, white-haired Marco Pannella, has won itself a stable niche in public affections by the consistency with which it has campaigned for fundamental social reforms, especially abortion and electoral reform.
