Elisabetta De Giorgi

José Santana-Pereira

This book explores the argument that Portugal has been an exception to the trend of political upheaval and electoral instability across Southern Europe following the financial crisis and the bailout period. It does so by mapping and exploring in-depth three key dimensions: the governmental arena, the party system and citizens’ political attitudes. The five chapters in this edited volume show that a number of factors combine to make Portugal not only a very stimulating case study, but also an exception within the South European panorama: the stability of its party system, and that of the mainstream parties’ electoral support in particular; the quick recovery of political attitudes after the end of the bailout period (2011-2014); the absence of competitive populist challengers until 2019, despite high levels of populist attitudes amongst the citizenry; the successful and stable union between anti-austerity parties supporting the socialist government (dubbed the ‘Contraption’) and its adoption of an ‘austerity by stealth’ model. This book shows that it is possible to combine critical junctures and political stability, responsiveness and responsibility, through the study of one of the most intriguing cases in Southern Europe in the last decades. The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal will be of interest to students, researchers and scholars of Political Science and European Studies. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, South European Society and Politics.

The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal

Catherine Moury

As a result of the financial crisis, opposition parties have had to choose between the need to cooperate with the majority in order to contribute to necessary socio-economic changes, and the opportunity to stress their adversarial position vis-à-vis governments taking radical and unpopular measures. This book examines how opposition parties address this dilemma. It relies on a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the behaviour of the opposition parties in parliament, in light of the socio-economic issues that have arisen in recent years. It focuses in particular on the impact that the economic malaise has had on the government-opposition dynamics in the four southern European democracies most acutely hit by the crisis: Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain, as well as in the European Parliament. Each chapter utilizes a combination of empirical data analysis and qualitative process-tracking to understand the opposition parties’ complicated choice between supporting and dissenting. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Legislative Studies.

Great Recession, Great Cooperation?

Government-Opposition in Southern European Countries during the Economic Crisis

Gabriella Ilonszki

Cover -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- Figures -- Tables -- Contributors -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Denmark: strengthened opposition, yet high levels of cooperation -- 3 Germany: heated debates but cooperative behaviour -- 4 The Netherlands: the reinvention of consensus democracy -- 5 Italy: when responsibility fails. Parliamentary opposition in times of crisis -- 6 Portugal: the unexpected path of far left parties, from permanent opposition to government support -- 7 Spain: government and opposition cooperation in a multi-level context -- 8 Czech Republic: weak governments and divided opposition in times of crisis -- 9 Hungary: the de(con)struction of parliamentary opposition -- 10 Poland: opposition in the making -- 11 Romania: an ambivalent parliamentary opposition -- 12 Switzerland: when opposition is in government -- 13 Conclusions -- Index

Conflict Or Consensus?

Opposition Parties in European Legislatures

Democratic theory considers it fundamental for parties in government to be both responsive to their electorate and responsible to internal and international constraints. But recently these two roles have become more and more incompatible with Mair’s growing divide in European party systems between parties which claim to represent, but don’t deliver, and those which deliver, but are no longer seen to represent truer than ever. This book contains a qualitative and quantitative analysis of the behaviour of the opposition parties in eleven European democracies across Western and East Central Europe. Specifically, it investigates the parliamentary behaviour of the opposition parties, and shows that the party context is increasingly diverse. It demonstrates the emergence of two distinct types of opposition: one more cooperative, carried out by the mainstream parties (those with government aspirations), and one more adversarial focusing on government scrutiny rather than on policy alternatives (parties permanently excluded from power). It systematically and analytically explores the sources of their behaviour, whilst acknowledging that opposition is broader than its mere parliamentary behaviour. Finally, it considers the European agenda and the economic crisis as two possible intervening variables that might have an impact on the opposition parties’ behaviour and the government-opposition relations. As such, it responds to questions that are major concerns for the European democracies of the new millennium. This text will be of key interest to students and scholars of political parties, European politics, comparative politics and democracy.

Elisabetta De Giorgi

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