Susannah Verney

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.

‘We No Longer Love You, But We Don’t Want To Leave You’: The Eurozone Crisis and Popular Euroscepticism in Greece

Abstract This article analyses whether and how public opinion towards the European Union (EU) in Greece has changed in the context of the current Eurozone crisis. It provides the first detailed treatment of how the crisis has affected citizens’ views in a traditionally pro-European member state. It examines whether public opinion has become more Eurosceptic and which societal groups have changed their views and in what direction. It uses data from Eurobarometer surveys conducted before and during the current crisis. Unsurprisingly, the findings show that negative sentiment towards the EU has increased across all social groups in recent years. However, we find a paradox of a decline in general support for the EU and an increase in support for the Euro. In a country seen as traditionally pro-European, Greek public opinion has fallen out of love with the EU, but it clearly does not want to leave the Eurozone or renounce membership altogether.

Living Parallel Lives: Italy and Greece in an Age of Austerity

The economic crisis has triggered a process of political convergence between Italy and Greece. The simultaneous downfall of the Italian and Greek governments, following the public withdrawal of European confidence in their ability to handle the crisis, was followed by the establishment of technocrat-led governments based on parliamentary ‘super-majorities’ and then by ‘protest elections’, marked by unprecedented levels of electoral volatility. By apparently ending bipolarism, the crisis has completely changed patterns of national government formation and resulted in experiments with unusual government types. Both political systems have entered a transitional phase whose outcome is anything but certain, especially in the continuing context of economic crisis.

Euroscepticism in Southern Europe: A Diachronic Perspective

After laying out the rationale and framework of the issue, this introductory article offers a survey of party and popular euroscepticism in European Union member states, Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus and Malta and candidate Turkey, over several decades. Leonard Rays criteria of ideological extremity, electoral unpopularity and opposition are used to assess whether South European euroscepticism has been a marginal phenomenon. The article investigates whether Maastricht constituted a turning-point for the rise of euroscepticism and accession for its decline. Finally, it asks whether euroscepticism in Southern Europe is moving towards a new ‘constraining dissensus’.

‘Broken and Can’t be Fixed’: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on the Greek Party System

The Greek election of May 2012 failed to produce a government, resulting in repeat elections six weeks later. This shock outcome was a symptom of a broader delegitimation of the national political system. Over the past decade Eurobarometer data show a much more extensive loss of confidence in political institutions in Greece than in the European Union as a whole. In a first phase, rising political discontent was managed within the traditional political framework through alternation in power between the two major parties. In contrast, the second phase, following the outbreak of the Greek sovereign debt crisis, led to the dramatic fragmentation of the party system and changed the mode of government formation. This process is not reversible and entails serious democratic dangers.

Flaky Fringe? Southern Europe Facing the Financial Crisis

The introduction to this special issue notes how the financial crisis has revived long-held concerns about the potential impact of Southern Europe on the economic cohesion of the European Union and the eurozone. The article outlines the brief of the special issue (geographical scope, time period covered) and suggests that expectations of a South European eurozone withdrawal are unrealistic.

Environmental policy in Greece: Evolution, structures and process

Greece has been criticised for having ‘no environmental policy’. This is not true, and has not been for over a decade. Clearly, EU membership since 1981 is a major reason for this change. But Greek environmental policy is in many ways flawed, and it is still deeply affected by not only the inheritance of serious environmental degradation but also political, administrative, economic and cultural continuities. Greece is seen as a case of bureaucratic fragmentation in the environmental field. The approach taken is diachronic within‐country rather than making synchronic cross‐national comparisons with other European Countries. When the countrys environmental problems and the reasons for their persistence, the nature of political structures, the policy‐making process and political responses are taken into account and when the impact of EU membership is assessed with respect to possible policy changes in the future, the dynamics of the environmental policy area can be seen to be complex, involving different co...

The coalitions of 1989-90 in Greece: Inter-party relations and democratic consolidation

The Greek coalitions of 1989–90 were unusual by comparative European standards, given their political composition and ideological span. But, above all, they were significant as an historical departure in Greek politics, however much political expediency lay behind their formation. Coalitions are as such almost unknown in postwar Greece, and one‐party government has been the rule since the return to democracy in 1974. Even more significant was the inclusion of the Communist Left in the governments of 1989–90 in view of the polarised state of Greek politics since 1974 and historical memories of the Civil War. Drawing on lessons from coalition theory, the formation and maintenance of these two governments are discussed. While their policy achievements were limited, the governments of 1989—90 allowed Greece to overcome the crisis of the PASOK government and the scandals of 1988–89 and they made way for a second alternation in power. On balance, therefore, they are likely to have contributed to the ongoing pro...

The Eurozone's First Post-bailout Election: The 2010 Local Government Contest in Greece

An apparent case of Greek exceptionalism, the 2010 local government election, held six months after the European Union (EU)/International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailout in the context of an explicit prime-ministerial pledge to call general elections if the outcome was deemed unsatisfactory, did not lead to the downfall of the incumbent government. Instead the socialists remained first party. Investigating this puzzle, the article examines how party strategies were shaped by the dynamics of a two-round contest fought at the sub-national level and shows that the split around the EU/IMF Memorandum of Understanding did not emerge as a new political cleavage. Assessing the results, it concludes that the main electoral verdict did not concern the future of the bailout but the legitimacy of the political system, which was in a state of deepening crisis.

Waking the ‘sleeping giant’ or expressing domestic dissent? Mainstreaming Euroscepticism in crisis-stricken Greece

The surge in support for Eurosceptic parties in the 2014 Euroelections is investigated through a case study of Greece, a country which suffered a dramatic dealignment of its party system after the onset of the Eurozone crisis. The extent to which crisis-era developments represent a rupture is assessed by setting the recent rise of party Euroscepticism in its historical context. Eurobarometer data is used to investigate the relationship between party and popular Euroscepticism and an alternative domestically-driven explanation of causality. The conclusion is that the crisis era has been a game-changer in attitudes towards European integration. The rising vote for Eurosceptic parties is not simply a side-effect of domestic protest. Instead the EU has become a significant electoral target.