This article explores the link between the financial crisis and Euroscepticism at the level of public opinion, building on and developing further the literature on the impact of economic, identity and institutional factors on Euroscepticism. It argues that the economic crisis did not substantially bring economic factors back in as an important source of Euroscepticism, even though the most pronounced increase in Euroscepticism has taken place in the countries most affected by the crisis. By contrast, national identity and political institutions play an increasingly important role in explaining public Euroscepticism.
Over the past years, parties often described as populist, such as SYRIZA in Greece, the Five Star Movement (FSM) in Italy and Podemos in Spain have made significant electoral breakthroughs, unsettling well-established party systems. In the literature, inclusionary populism has primarily been applied to Latin America whereas the three Southern European parties have been examined individually, but not in comparative perspective. The purpose of this article is to provide a comparative analysis, based on an original electoral manifestos content analysis, aimed at unveiling the ‘inclusionary populism’ features of the ‘new’ political parties that have emerged in Southern Europe. By focusing on the 2012–16 period, the article shows that the inclusionary category can be fruitfully applied also to European political parties; it finds different degrees of inclusionary populism (namely between SYRIZA and Podemos); and it proves that the FSM falls between the two exclusionary vs. inclusionary poles.
Why has the weakness of the parliamentary dimension in the extensive array of soft governance practices that have exploded in the European Union (EU) since the turn of the century gone largely unnoticed? Is that weakness a problem for input legitimacy and, if so, to what extent can it be overcome by compensating with other, non-parliamentary channels of legitimacy? An argument from accountability will be put forward, according to which strengthening the parliamentary dimension is inescapable if democratic legitimacy is to be respected, though civil society and stakeholder involvement are also increasingly necessary as well in a complementary role. The article will explore some suggestions about how this can be achieved.
Greece, Portugal and Spain are among the countries worst hit by the 2008 Great Recession, with significant electoral and political turmoil since then. However, one of the dimensions in which they differ is the presence and varieties of populism in parties' political proposals. Drawing on holistic coding of party manifestos, we assess the varying presence of populist features in mainstream and challenging parties before and after the 2008 economic downturn. Our empirical findings show that populism is significantly higher in Greece compared to Spain and Portugal. We do not find a significant impact of the crisis as the degree of populism remains rather stable in Greece and Portugal, while it increases in Spain, mainly due to the rise of new populist forces. In addition, inclusionary populism is the predominant flavour of populist parties in new Southern Europe, although exclusionary populism is present to a lesser extent in the Greek case. Finally, we contend the national context-namely the ideological legacy of parties and the strategic options of party leadership-, is crucial for explaining crosscountry variation in the intensity of populism and the specific issues that characterise populist discourse.
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