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As in the case of the term "communist state", it should be noted that "post-communism" is completely inaccurate if we use the original definition of communism (the one given by the communists themselves). None of the so-called "communist states" ever claimed to actually have a communist system, and therefore, technically, there is no such thing as "post-communism". However, those states were usually called "communist" in the West, because their ruling parties generally used the name "Communist Party of [country]", and it is in this context that the term post-communism must be understood.
The policies of most Communist Parties in both Eastern and Western Europe had been governed by the example of the Soviet Union. In most of the countries in Eastern Europe, following the fall of communist-led governments in 1989, the Communist Party generally split in two factions: a reformist Social Democratic party and a new Communist Party. Without exception, the newly created Social Democratic parties were vastly larger and more powerful than the remaining Communist Parties.
The ex-communist social democrats gained increasing popularity when the transition to capitalism began to cause economic problems such as poverty and unemployment. Virtually all of them won the elections at least once in the past 15 years. However, their voters, who were certainly expecting a left-wing policy, met with a rather major surprise: all the ex-communist "social democrats", without exception, followed a highly capitalist, neoliberal policy while in power. As a result, many disillusioned left-wing voters have turned to the remaining Communist Parties in recent years.
In western Europe, many of the self-styled communist political parties reacted by changing their policies to a more moderateModerate in the sense meant here is an intermediate position between those generally classified as being left-wing and those seen as being right-wing. Moderate can be used both as an adjective describing such a position, and as a noun describing persons h and less radicalRadical is derived from the Latin word radix which means "pertaining to the root(s)". In various fields of endeavor, it can mean: in sociology: one who advocates thoroughgoing analysis or change "at the root" in politics: can refer to (an extremist) a sup course. The old rift in the socialist movement between the revolutionaries and the reformists was therefore mostly eliminated, since the reformists prevailed. In countries such as ItalyThe Italian Republic or Italy ( Italian: Italia is a country in the south of Europe, consisting mainly of a boot-shaped peninsula together with two large islands in the Mediterranean Sea: Sicily and Sardinia. To the north, where it borders France, Switzer and GermanyThe Federal Republic of Germany ( German: Bundesrepublik Deutschland is one of the world's leading industrialized countries, located in the middle of the European Union. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark and the Baltic Sea, to the east, post-communism is marked by the increased influence of their existing Social Democrats. The anti-Soviet communist parties didn't particularly prosper from it - in fact, some of them became less radical as well.