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 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.

[1]  Irene Martín,et al.  The 2011 General Election in Spain: The Collapse of the Socialist Party , 2012 .

[2]  Carlos Jalali.  The 2011 Portuguese Presidential Elections: Incumbency Advantage in Semi-presidentialism? , 2012 .

[3]  Alessandro Chiaramonte,et al.  The Twilight of the Berlusconi Era: Local Elections and National Referendums in Italy, May and June 2011 , 2012 .

[4]  M. Lewis-Beck,et al.  Economic crisis and elections: The European periphery , 2012 .

[5]  Mustafa Besim,et al.  Cyprus in the Global Financial Crisis: How Lack of Banking Sophistication Proved an Advantage , 2009 .

[6]  C. Christophorou.  Disengaging Citizens: Parliamentary Elections in the Republic of Cyprus, 22 May 2011 , 2012 .

[7]  Sait Aksit.  The Turkish Cypriot Presidential Election of April 2010: Normalisation of Politics , 2012 .

[8]  Vassilis T. Rapanos,et al.  Tax and Trust: The Fiscal Crisis in Greece , 2012 .

[9]  Guillem Rico.  The 2010 Regional Election in Catalonia: A Multilevel Account in an Age of Economic Crisis , 2012 .

[10]  I. Krastev.  The Balkans: Democracy Without Choices , 2002 .

[11]  A. Çarkoğlu.  The March 2009 Local Elections in Turkey: A Signal for Takers or the Inevitable Beginning of the End for AKP? , 2009 .

[12]  A. Bosco,et al.  The Monti government and the downgrade of Italian parties , 2012 .

[13]  Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca,et al.  In the Whirlwind of the Economic Crisis: Local and Regional Elections in Spain, May 2011 , 2012 .

[14]  E. Jones.  The Berlusconi Government and the Sovereign Debt Crisis , 2012 .

[15]  S. Aydın-Düzgit.  No Crisis, No Change: The Third AKP Victory in the June 2011 Parliamentary Elections in Turkey , 2012 .

[16]  P. Mair.  Bini Smaghi vs. the Parties: Representative government and institutional constraints , 2011 .

[17]  G. Pagoulatos,et al.  The Return of the Greek Patient: Greece and the 2008 Global Financial Crisis , 2009 .

[18]  P. Corbetta.  The 2010 Regional Elections in Italy: Another Referendum on Berlusconi , 2012 .

[19]  Sebastián Royo.  After the Fiesta: The Spanish Economy Meets the Global Financial Crisis , 2009 .

[20]  Francisco Torres.  Back to External Pressure: Policy Responses to the Financial Crisis in Portugal , 2009 .

[21]  Pedro C. Magalhães.  After the Bailout: Responsibility, Policy, and Valence in the Portuguese Legislative Election of June 2011 , 2012 .