Electoral Epidemic: The Political Cost of Economic Crisis in Southern Europe, 2010-11

This article introduces a collection of essays on the elections of 2010-11 in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot community. It examines the impact of the European sovereign debt crisis on electoral trends in the era of the Greek and Portuguese bailouts. After brie...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:South European society & politics 2012-06, Vol.17 (2), p.129-154
Main Authors: Bosco, Anna, Verney, Susannah
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Abstention
Challenger Parties
Democracy
Economic Crises
Elections
Epidemics
Europe
Eurozone Crisis
Extreme Right parties
Financial crisis
Greece
Incumbent Punishment
Italy
Party politics
Portugal
Punishment
Racism
Regional analysis
Southern Europe
Sovereign Debt Crisis
Spain
Voting abstentionism
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Summary:This article introduces a collection of essays on the elections of 2010-11 in Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot community. It examines the impact of the European sovereign debt crisis on electoral trends in the era of the Greek and Portuguese bailouts. After briefly examining the crisis economies, it investigates patterns of abstention, incumbent punishment and opposition success, including the rise of regional, anti-party, far-right and racist parties. The article concludes, following Krastev (Journal of Democracy, vol. 13, no. 3, 2002, pp. 39-53), that the crisis is creating 'democracy without choices' in Southern Europe with potentially destabilising consequences throughout the region.
ISSN:1360-8746
1743-9612
DOI:10.1080/13608746.2012.747272