The Voluntary Sector and Criminal JusticeA. Hucklesby and M. Corcoran (Eds.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (2016) 252pp. £68.00hb ISBN 978‐1‐137‐37067‐9

This book examines the history of European communist parties in a number of countries following the fall of the Soviet Union.Taking as its starting point the events of 1989 to 1991, it examines the immediate responses of European communist parties to the crisis, their search for an identity separate from Moscow and the formation of distinct electoral platforms and reformist programmes.It tracks their recent electoral success (or for some, distinct lack of electoral success) and contrasts the paths taken by communist parties across the continent.The first few chapters set the scene for what comes later.Chapter 1 focuses on 'Survival and Renewal' in the early 1990s and Chapter 2 looks at the 'regroupment' and the establishment of a 'European Movement' (a network of left-wing parties cooperating both within and outside the European Parliament).Chapter 3 discusses the creation of the Party of the European Left in the European Parliament.The chapters that follow then focus on the communist parties of particular countries; Die Linke (Germany), Partito della Rifondazione Comunista (Italy), Parti Communiste Francais (France), The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, and the Scandinavian left.What is striking is the diversity of paths taken, and fortunes enjoyed, by the parties.For instance, as just one example of divergence, whereas Die Linke achieved national appeal and gained 11.9% of the vote in the federal elections of 2009 and 19.2% in the Saarland state election, the Partito della Rifondazione Comunista was nearly finished following a difficult period in coalition with the mainstream right, taking only 3.1% of the vote in the general election of 2009 (as part of the 'Rainbow Coalition') and subsequently gained no seats in parliament.Just as the book plots the differences in the parties' post-1989/91 experiences, it also brings out a set of consistent and shared dilemmas.How should the hard left respond to the Maastricht Treaty?Seen as a neoliberal free trade project, the parties struggled to frame opposition to the Treaty without surrendering their internationalist (in this case, pan-European) heritage.Further, some parties gained sufficient strength to become viable coalition partners, often to right-of-centre parties.Should this opportunity for power be taken, or is support for right-wing parties and their agenda seen as too high a price to pay?The book may not appear to be of immediate interest to criminologists, particularly those with a United Kingdom focus.First, there is no discussion of crime or criminal justice policy.The book is a work of political science and a reader looking for a discussion of crime policy within European left parties will look in vain.Second, the book carries no analysis of how post-1989 communism and socialism fared in Britain; this is very much a book about 'continental' left movements.British readers will no doubt find themselves asking which parallels from the European story apply to Britain, and whether the recent apparent strengthening of the hard left within the British Labour Party forms part of this story, or whether Britain is somehow distinct.

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