Radical Left Voters in Southern Europe and Beyond

Abstract

Speakers Raul Gomez, University of Liverpool Luis Ramiro, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia Discussant Giorgos Charalambous, University of Nicosia Moderater Bonnie Field, Bentley University Radical Left parties (RLPs) have made a comeback in Western Europe. In the past two decades, RLPs have not only obtained representation in a growing number of national parliaments, but they have also participated in governments (or provided them with parliamentary support) in virtually every single country in which they are present. Whilst electoral recovery has been a slow and uneven process for many parties, cases of remarkable success became a more common occurrence after the 2008 Great Recession, especially (though not exclusively) in Mediterranean countries (Greece, Spain, France and, to a lesser extent, Portugal are main cases). Despite this, our knowledge of the electorate of contemporary Radical Left parties is still quite limited. Who votes for RLPs in the relatively affluent contemporary West European societies? And what factors explain their electoral success (or the lack thereof)? In this seminar, Raul Gomez and Luis Ramiro will aim to shed light on these questions by discussing evidence from their new book Radical Left Voters in Western Europe (Routledge, 2023).