Party Politics in a ‘Crisis Zone’: Party System Change in Southern Europe

Abstract

The economic and financial crisis that has hit Southern Europe has paved the way to important changes for the functioning of party organizations and their role in the political system. On the one hand, external pressures on parties have increased, namely through the emergence of new parties, the increase in anti-party feelings and new forms of mobilization. On the other, the dynamics of the party systems have shown a remarkable resistance to external challenges. This panel aims at examining this puzzle by considering the impact of the economic and financial crisis at both the party and party system level. Firstly, our purpose is to investigate whether parties have experienced organizational changes (i.e. increasing intra-party democracy), ideological or programmatic transformations or new strategies of mobilization (for instance, by establishing strong ties to social movements). Secondly, this panel aims to examine whether the format and the functioning of Southern European party systems have changed or not. This means to consider parties’ strategic orientations, patterns of government, as well as voter-party alignments. In particular, we are interested in shedding more light on the mechanisms behind party and party system change and the role of the present economic crisis, as well as the variation of this response among Southern European countries. The panel welcome proposals on individual case studies or comparative studies based on different countries or distinct party families. Contributions might adopt different perspectives and methodology. This approach will be particularly suitable to contribute not only to the debate on voter-party alignment but also to the discussion of the transformation of party governments in Southern Europe.

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