Sofia Vasilopoulou

Greece in Crisis: Austerity, Populism and the Politics of Blame†

Within the broader debate on the Greek crisis, the theory of ‘populist democracy’ postulates that populism is fundamental to the sustenance of the Greek political system and is at the heart of Greeces endemic domestic weaknesses. This article tests this assumption empirically through the use of a sophisticated framing analysis of speeches delivered by the leaders of the five parties in the Greek parliament in the period 2009–11. The findings confirm that populism: (a) is expressed through the narratives of political actors; (b) is observed across the party system; (c) is expressed in the forms of blame-shifting and exclusivity; and (d) differs depending on position in the party system. The article contributes to the debate by testing and building on the theory of democratic populism, providing a novel way of measuring and operationalizing populism and identifying a new typology that distinguishes between mainstream and fringe populism.

In the shadow of Grexit: the Greek election of 17 June 2012

This article provides an overview and analysis of the Greek elections of June 2012. Placing the elections within the broader framework of the Greek socio-political and economic context, it discusses the electoral campaign and results, juxtaposing them to the 6 May electoral round. The election results confirmed many of the trends of the previous round, including electoral volatility, the fragmentation of the party system and the rise of anti-establishment forces. The main difference was the entrenchment of the pro- versus anti- bailout division and the prominence of the question of Greeces continued eurozone membership.

Absent yet popular? Explaining news visibility of Members of the European Parliament

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) represent their citizens in European Union policy making, having the power to approve, amend or reject the near majority of legislation. The media inform EU citizens about their representatives and are able to hold them publicly accountable. However, we know little about whether, and to what extent, MEPs are visible in the news. This study investigates the visibility of MEPs in national broadsheets in Britain, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. It seeks to explain individual-level variation by employing an original dataset of news visibility of 302 MEPs over a period of 25 months (September 2009-September 2011) and tests the applicability of the news values and mirror theories in the context of supranational politics. The results show that political office, length of tenure and domestic party leadership have a positive effect. Legislative activities have a mixed effect on MEP news visibility. Attendance negatively affects news visibility, while non-attached MEPs receive more news coverage. In short, despite the core supranational nature of EP legislative politics, MEP news visibility primarily depends on journalists’ domestic considerations. This informs both our understanding of MEP parliamentary behaviour and journalism studies in the context of the EU.

UK Euroscepticism and the Brexit Referendum

This article shows that key to understanding the referendum outcome are factors such as a profoundly eurosceptic public, high levels of citizen uncertainty, divided mainstream political parties on the EU and lack of unity within the ‘Leave’ campaign. The Brexit referendum is more than just about domestic issues and government approval. Utilitarian concerns related to economic evaluations of EU integration coupled with support of or opposition to EU freedom of movement are very likely to influence vote choice. Those campaigns that focus on rational utilitarian arguments about the costs and benefits related to EU membership as a whole but also to EU freedom of movement are expected to swing voters.

The Golden Dawn's 'Nationalist Solution'

The emergence of Golden Dawn has been one of the key developments in Greek party politics since the beginning of the financial crisis. Sofia Vasilopoulou and Daphne Halikiopoulou assess the rise of the party, noting that Golden Dawn’s success has been based on its ability to promote a nationalist solution to the economic, political and ideological crises that have occurred in Greece. They argue, however, that simply outlawing the party could prove self-defeating, and that a better strategy would be to focus on educational reform and civic engagement as a way to counter divisive narratives.

Support for the Far Right in the 2014 European Parliament Elections: A Comparative Perspective

The May 2014 European Parliament (EP) elections were characterised by the success of far-right Eurosceptic parties, including the French Front National, UKIP, the Danish People’s Party, the Hungarian Jobbik, the Austrian FPO, the True Finns and the Greek Golden Dawn. However, a closer look at the results across Europe indicates that the success of far-right parties in the EP elections is neither a linear nor a clear-cut phenomenon: (1) the far right actually declined in many European countries compared to the 2009 results; (2) some of the countries that have experienced the worst of the economic crisis, including Spain, Portugal and Ireland, did not experience a significant rise in far-right party support; and (3) ‘far right’ is too broad an umbrella term, covering parties that are too different from each other to be grouped in one single party family.

Matching policy preferences: the linkage between voters and MEPs

The European Parliament has often been accused of its inability to link to European citizens. This article employs quantitative measures to investigate levels of congruence between individual MEPs and their voters on core policy issues following the 2009 EP elections. Operationalizing congruence as a ‘many-to-one’ relationship, it suggests that on socio-economic issues, the correspondence of policy preferences tends to be higher between voters and MEPs belonging to right-wing and liberal parties than for leftist MEPs. On socio-cultural issues, MEPs generally tend to have more liberal views than their representatives. Tobit models show that, depending on the issue, the strength of voter–MEP opinion congruence can be linked to the frequency of contacts and MEP seniority in office. Eurosceptic MEPs tend to be worse at representing their electorate, while voter–MEP agreement also tends to be affected by the electoral system and length of EU membership. The findings have implications for the legitimacy of European politics in current affairs.

British Eurosceptic Voting in 2014: Anti-EU or Anti-Government?

This chapter examines British eurosceptic voting at the 2014 European Parliament (EP) election, analyzing British party politics, party competition and the role of political entrepreneurs and public preferences. It shows that the 2014 EP election campaign did have a European dimension, although not the one intended by the EP. The campaign was dominated by the question of the UK’s continued EU membership and related issues, such as EU freedom of movement and UK borders. The analysis of United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) voting reveals both EU and domestic concerns. While voters opted for UKIP as they perceived it to be close to their anti-EU attitudes, that party’s supporters also voted to express disapproval of the government, especially as compared to Conservative and Liberal Democrat voters.

The Myth of National Rebirth: The Golden Dawn’s Populist Ultra-nationalism

This chapter focuses on the second component of the Golden Dawn’s nationalist solution, namely, the fascist myth of national rebirth. The chapter places the Golden Dawn’s palingenetic vision within the framework of ethnic election and examines the ways in which the party draws upon available cultural reservoirs. Its main proposition is that the Greek crisis offered fertile ground for the Golden Dawn to present itself as the saviour of the nation and defender of the national mission. We show that this type of nationalism forms the Golden Dawn’s master narrative and argue that the party’s success is partly related to its ability to claim ownership of nationalist issues through employing a narrative of chosenness and ethnic election.

Who Supports the Golden Dawn? An Analysis of the Disillusioned Voter

This chapter evaluates demand-side explanations for the rise of the Golden Dawn through an examination of the socio-demographic profile and political attitudes of its prospective supporters. It places support for the Golden Dawn within the broader European comparative framework, which identifies two main models of far right-wing party support, that is, the socio-economic and political grievance models. The chapter finds that the key to Golden Dawn support is grievance, anxiousness, bewilderment, insecurity and resentfulness, which prompt voters to support a party that propagates return to traditional values.