Electoral Democracy in Congested and Contested Political Arenas of Europe: Challenges, Threats, Opportunities

Abstract

In the recent years Europe has experienced a growing number of challenges and threats to liberal democracy. In many countries parties which openly oppose this model of government have been quite successful; in other countries even the mainstream parties have been re-thinking their commitment to democracy and liberalism. Satisfaction with democracy in various places across Europe has decreased, at least among certain strata of society. Instead, xenophobia, nationalism, populism and authoritarianism have gained substantive support. This panel aims to discuss broadly this new, changing situation of electoral democracy in Europe. We want to address the issue of challenges, threats and opportunities that European democratic systems – often congested and contested – have latterly faced. The panel thus aims to attract both theoretical and empirical papers, either taking a broader comparative view on electoral democracies of Europe, or in-depth case studies taking a long-term historical perspective on the political development of a single country. We are particularly interested in papers, which aim to explain the current illiberal turn observed across Europe, which discuss the sources, determinants and consequences of the detachments with democracy and liberalism, which try to elucidate the successes of anti-democratic parties and movements on the continent. However, we not only welcome papers discussing the processes pointed out in the title of the panel, as these are complicated and multi-causal, but we are also interested in the ones discussing other aspects of electoral democracy (cleavages, party identification, economic voting etc.), which might have impact on European democracies at risk.

Title	Details
Efficient intermediates? Challenges to parties in electoral democracy	View Paper Details
Smart economic voting? On the impact of political sophistication on economic voting mechanisms	View Paper Details
A Contested Commitment? External Pressure and Policy Feedback in Swedish Immigration Politics	View Paper Details
Preference voting in proportional representation systems and political trust	View Paper Details