Politics in Polarised Southern Europe

Abstract

The period of the eurozone crisis brought major changes to South European politics, including shock election outcomes marked by the decline of mainstream political forces and the rise of challenger parties. As South European economies move out of the era of bailouts and extreme austerity, the region remains remarked by a crisis legacy of political polarization. The aim of this panel is to investigate this phenomenon on a comparative basis, through country case studies examining how polarization has been playing out in national debates, in electoral politics and in the experience of unusual governments.