'Democracies Without Choice' in the Periphery of Europe: Parliamentary Mandate Fulfilment Before and After the Eurozone Crisis (2000–2017)

The idea that electoral competition, party promises and manifestos are important for how the representative behaviour of parties unfolds post-electorally is central to democratic theories of representation. Consequently, the Party Mandate Model has been considered a key mechanism for achieving a congruence of opinions between representatives and voters. Recent studies however, have demonstrated that party promises are becoming decreasingly important for parliamentary decisions. The economic conditionalities that legislators now face, signal a steady deterioration of the quality of democracy. This paper’s aim is to test the alleged unfolding of what scholars have dubbed ‘democracies without choice’ through the analysis of parliamentary representation in the periphery of Europe. Do economic conditionalities actually reduce parliamentary pluralism and/or ideological range in comparison to electoral competition? By focusing on the parliaments of four European countries, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain and by comparing longitudinal electoral manifesto data with post-electoral parliamentary data from 2000 to 2017 this paper attempts to shed light on an empirically understudied side of mandate fulfilment. The selected period allows for the tracking of the evolution of representation before, during and after the Eurozone crisis in countries that underwent periods of severe and differentiating external economic conditionality. The paper’s methodological approach is novel for mandate fulfilment studies extending past approaches (both conceptually and methodologically) by looking at the extent to which the parliamentary behaviour of parties matches their electoral stances. This research is an integral part of the ERC MAPLE Project, and will draw on the extensive data collected over the past two years in order to present a valuable picture on the crucial issue of the state of representation in the periphery of Europe today.