Reshaping State and Society in Southern Europe

Southern Europe is attracting new attention as the scene of accelerated economic, political and social change. In the southern eurozone, the economic crisis is exerting strong pressure for fiscal consolidation and structural reform with far-reaching consequences. At the same time, external surveillance of domestic policymaking is intensifying e.g. through the EU’s fiscal compact. The dynamic is especially intense for bailout countries, committed through agreements with international lenders to achieve an ambitious agenda of radical restructuring in a compressed time period. Here, external actors (European Commission, ECB, IMF) have become directly involved in domestic decision-making. Meanwhile, Turkey since its own economic crisis and IMF intervention in 2001 has been the scene of very rapid economic growth with the formerly banned Islamist movement now at the centre of a developing dominant party system. In Southern Europe, European integration has an intensifying impact on domestic politics, whether through Enlargement (Turkey) or Deepening (EU member-states). Southern Europe has proved particularly vulnerable to globalisation, especially with China’s rising role in the region as economic competitor and potential investor. Current processes of change in Southern Europe raise questions concerning the changing nature of state sovereignty in an era of bailouts, intensifying EU requirements and expanding globalisation. These questions are particularly interesting given Southern Europe’s traditional reputation for weak state capacity. Is the state in Southern Europe shrinking or alternatively, is it being strengthened in some areas? What types of state transformation are occurring? Is society being weakened or are changing circumstances producing new opportunities for a societal role? This Section investigates how recent processes of change are impacting on the state, society and the state-society relationship. The Section offers a forum for innovative empirical research and encourages a range of disciplinary perspectives and methodological approaches. Regarding geographical scope, the Section accepts country case studies of Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Cyprus and Malta. Intra-South European comparative studies are particularly welcome. CONVENORS Susannah Verney (Assistant Professor, University of Athens): Convenor, Standing Group on SE Politics; Co-editor, South European Society and Politics and related Routledge book series; former Associate Editor, The Journal of Modern Greek Studies; Convenor, Sections on Southern Europe, ECPR General Conferences 2009, 2011, 2013. Maria Kousis (Professor of Sociology, University of Crete): EU project Coordinator/participant e.g. EuroMed Heritage II, Environment and Climate Research Programme, 6th & 7th FP's; Co-Convenor, Session on Mediterranean Regions, 2012 World Congress of Rural Sociology; recent publications: Contested Mediterranean Spaces (with T. Selwyn and D. Clark, Berghahn Books, 2011); Mediterranean Political Processes, 1400-2006 (with C. Tilly and R. Franzosi, American Behavioral Scientist, 2008). Senem Aydın-Düzgit (Associate Professor/ Jean Monnet Chair, Istanbul Bilgi University): Associate Editor, South European Society and Politics; Local Organiser, ECPR Standing Group on EU Conference, Istanbul Bilgi University, 2006; Co-convenor, EISA Workshop, Europe and Turkey (May 2014); recent book ‘Constructions of European Identity: Debates and Discourses on Turkey and the EU’ (Routledge, 2013).