Is Spain or Greece the Exception? Varieties of Support for Extremism During Economic Crisis

Under what circumstances is economic crisis likely to be associated with the rise of the extreme right? Greece and Spain are both experiencing severe economic crisis. They also share many similarities often cited as prohibiting factors to the rise of extremism, including a legacy of authoritarianism. However, while in Greece the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn (GD) has recently entered Parliament, in Spain there is no comparable support for extremism. Employing the most similar systems research design, this paper identifies certain necessary and sufficient conditions for the presence of right-wing extremism that exist in Greece but not in Spain. It argues that the economic crisis is not in itself a sufficient condition for the rise in support for right-wing populist parties. Rather, adopting a political opportunity structures perspective, it argues that it is the impact of the current economic crisis on the political system explains why there is support for right-wing extremism in Greece but not in Spain. In Greece the crisis has resulted in the complete break-up of the party system. This has provided a structure of political opportunity for parties such as GD, absent in Spain. Greek voters have opted for GD because and not despite its anti-systemic character. This paper carries out a multi-level logistic regression analysis in order to compare patterns of voting behaviour in Greece and Spain. It tests the above theory by examining the potential explanatory value of a number of individual-level variables, including socio-economic and demographic characteristics, attitudes to immigration and nationalism, disillusionment with the political system, endorsement for anti-systemic politics and ideological predisposition.