How the European debt crisis reshaped national political space: The case of Greece

Abstract

Where some authors saw a limited impact of Europeanisation on national party politics, others proposed that in addition to the pre-existing economic left-right dimension a separate European Union dimension structures the national political space. This article looks at the Greek bail-out during the European sovereign debt crisis to examine how Europeanisation can change the national political space. The bail-out came with memoranda that set the main lines of Greek economic policy for the coming years. Accepting these policies was connected with remaining in the Eurozone. This restructured the political space: the economic and European integration form one dimension. A second relevant dimension focuses on cultural issues. The economic/European dimension is a stronger predictor of vote choice than the cultural dimension.

Beyond Kriesiland: EU integration as a super issue after the Eurocrisis

“…The results of this article reflect a pattern that Katsanidou and Otjes () have observed for Greece: the strongly crisis‐affected countries were bailed‐out by European institutions and these bail‐outs came with reforms, cuts and privatisations. Citizens who contested these austerity measures also had to contest European integration: in these countries, favouring European integration became linked to an economically right‐wing agenda.…”

“…However, when the analysis is run only on Eurozone countries, then the relationship remains significant but loses in strength. The pattern found in this analysis for Greece is also sustained by Katsanidou and Otjes ().…”

“…In contrast to this growing consensus of two‐dimensional political space where the economy and the EU are the two key issues that structure the West European political space, Katsanidou and Otjes (), analysing crisis‐stricken Greece in 2012, found that policy positions on economic issues are closely related to attitudes towards European integration. This finding stripped most of the content from the left‐right dimension, which only captured issues like immigration.…”

The party politics of Euroscepticism in times of crisis: The case of Greece

“…At the height of the crisis in 2013 approximately half of Greek respondents had a negative image of the EU as opposed to approximately 28 per cent of EU citizens. The EUÕs heavy involvement in debtor countriesÕ economic policy meant that EU-initiated reforms became linked with economic malaise and loss of sovereignty (Clements et al, 2014;Katsanidou and Otjes, 2016). In addition, the sovereign debt crisis coincided with Greece being one of the frontline states during the refugee crisis with thousands of arrivals being reported in the Greek islands of Chios, Kos, Lesvos and Samos.…”

Understanding the Political Economy of the Eurozone Crisis

“…Given that the latter were often aimed at stripping privileges from politically influential groups, they often have been implemented only under considerable external pressure, and even then compliance has been spotty. Similarly, banks and other financial market participants have largely been able to socialize their losses, rolling them over to taxpayers (Blyth 2013 Overall, incumbents and mainstream parties have been punished in elections across the board and the crisis has had a destabilizing effect on these countries' party systems (Bellucci et al 2012, Bosco & Verney 2016, Hernández & Kriesi 2015, Katsanidou & Otjes 2016.…”