Examining the Impact of Poverty, Constraints and Anxiety on Political Participation among European Citizens under the Economic Crisis

Panel 6: This paper focuses on the impact of the current crisis on political participation in Europe, distinguishing between voting, protest, and a comprehensive index of other forms of political engagement. The structure of our theoretical framework is fourfold, examining the impact of 1) economic hardship, contrasting more resourceful groups such as full time permanent workers against poorer groups such as the long-term unemployed; 2) social capital, so as to consider the role of associational resources beyond simple economics; 3) anxiety, assessing the idea that increased anxiety enhances political participation and 4) political opportunities stemming from variations of welfare retrenchment across national states. We draw upon comparative data from the Younex project (EU FP7): we compare four major European cities (Geneva, Lyon, Turin, and Cologne) so as to maximise control of relationships amongst the variables of our framework.