A new era for the non-rulers too : West European communist parties, Perestroika and the revolution in Eastern Europe

The revolutions in central and eastern Europe have naturally focused attention on the collapse of the ruling parties of these regimes and the regimes themselves. This has tended to overlook the impact of this collapse on the non-ruling communist parties of western Europe. This article attempts to fill this gap by providing an analysis of what has happened to west European communism and the family of west European communist parties (WECPs) as a consequence of the collapse of the ruling communist regimes in central and eastern Europe