Eurocommunism is the practice of Western European communist parties (notably the Italian Communist Party and French Communist Party) to behave independently of directions from the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and to pursue pragmatic policies to further socialism within the existing capitalist countries instead of working towards a proletarian revolution as predicted by the doctrine of communism. The revisionist trend was popular during the 1970s and 1980s, and the 1976-1980 "historic compromise" between the Italian Communist Party and Christian Democracy in Italy was a consequence of the new policies of the Eurocommunist PCI.