Economic Crisis and Levels of Political Participation in Europe (2002–2010): The Role of Resources and Grievances

Abstract

In this article we examine the effect of the recent economic crisis on political participation levels in Europe. As the civic voluntarism model and grievances theory predict different effects of economic downturn on political participation, the crisis provides us with a unique context to evaluate the explanatory power of these two theories. We find that, when investigating a period of eight years (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010), economic growth is positively associated with non-institutionalised political participation, which is in line with the civic voluntarism model. However, when focusing on the changes in political participation that occurred between 2008 and 2010 we find that rising unemployment is associated with rising levels of non-institutionalised political participation, suggesting that grievance theory is especially useful in exceptionally negative conditions as suddenly imposed grievances can lead to various forms of protest behaviour. We argue that these shock experiences can lead to momentary peak periods of mobilisation.

Half a Loaf Is (Not) Better Than None: How Austerity-Related Grievances and Emotions Triggered Protests in Spain*

“…Second, we adopt a longitudinal perspective, which permits us to track the effect of grievances on the evolution of protest through the Great Recession in Spain, a country significantly damaged by the Great Recession. With our panel data we can show that grievances play a crucial role in participation, even after controlling for previous experiences, resources, motivations, behaviors, and attitudes, thus challenging recent research on the topic (Kern et al 2015;Rüdig and Karyotis 2014). Finally, we empirically test whether the effects of these grievances are in some cases mediated by negative emotions.…”

“…According to the political behavior and collective action literatures, the key factors that explain individuals' engagement in protest are resources, motivation, and mobilization (Curtis 2014;Kern et al 2015;Rüdig and Karyotis 2014;Verba et al 1995). However, this perspective struggles to explain how the sudden and serious worsening of many Europeans' living conditions since the start of the Great Recession could move people to protest, as economic hardship limits resources for participation (Verba et al 1995) and boosts political disaffection (Sanz, Navarrete, and Montero 2015).…”

“…Similarly, Anna Kern, Sofie Marien, and Marc Hooghe (2015) propose to analyze both collective and individual grievances. However, collective grievances are captured by changes in unemployment rates and changes in GDP, while individual grievances are equated to satisfaction with the economy.…”

Citizens and the Crisis: The Great Recession as Constraint and Opportunity

“…Studying the micro-macro link is a long-standing concern in sociology and the social sciences more generally (Alexander et al 1987;Turner and Markovsky 2007). Research on political participation has paid increasing attention to the interplay between micro-level and macro-level factors in accounts of protest behavior as well as political participation more generally (Dalton et al 2010;Grasso and Giugni 2016a;Kern et al 2015;Quaranta 2015Quaranta , 2016. Further work should follow this path and continue to examine how micro-macro dynamics help explain the impact of economic crises on citizens' attitudes and behaviors.…”

Determiners of Citizen Participation at Local Level in Poland

“…The presented research results were collected as part of a nationwide research project "Political preferences. Attitudes -Identifications - Behaviours" (2014 and2015).…”