Citizens and the Crisis

Experiences, Perceptions, and Responses to the Great Recession in Europe

Marco Giugni, Maria T. Grasso, Marco Giugni, Maria T. Grasso

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN:
  9783319689593
• eBook ISBN:
  9783319689609
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Comparative Politics
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Comparatively investigates citizens' political responses to the European economic crisis

Analyses perceptions, experiences and responses across different sectors of society

Uses insights and research methods from both political science and sociology

© The Author(s) 2018

Marco Giugni and Maria T. Grasso (eds.)Citizens and the CrisisPalgrave Studies in European Political Sociologyhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68960-9_1

Begin Abstract

1. Citizens and the Crisis: Perceptions, Experiences, and Responses to the Great Recession in Nine Democracies

Marco Giugni¹ and Maria T. Grasso²

(1)

Department of Political Science and International Relations, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

(2)

Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

Marco Giugni (Corresponding author)

Maria T. Grasso

End Abstract

European Citizens and the Great Recession

The economic crisis starting in 2008, also known as the “Great Recession,” has led to rising unemployment, shrinking growth, and, more generally, to a deterioration of macroeconomic conditions and living standards across Europe. Ten years since its onset, there is great variation in the economic conditions of different countries in Europe. As citizens still struggle to cope with the effects of the economic crisis, attention has been drawn to the implications of the recession in the social and political spheres of life. For example, the experience of economic difficulty can be understood to generate grievances which people may seek to redress through political action (Grasso and Giugni 2013; Grasso and Giugni 2016b).

Particularly during periods of economic challenges, macroeconomic conditions might fail to meet expectations, in turn resulting in feelings of relative deprivation and dissatisfaction. Indeed we expect that experiences of the crisis will vary depending on the political and economic context of the crisis (Giugni and Grasso 2016; Grasso and Giugni 2016a). In some countries, the economic crisis occurred in a period that was already characterized by deepening political crises (Kriesi 2014a).

As such, some of the overarching questions guiding this volume are as follows: How do citizens’ perceptions and experiences of the crisis as well as their political responses to it vary between countries which have experienced much deeper and more serious economic and political crises in this period? In those countries that suffered less serious economic consequences, are the perceptions of the crisis socially differentiated between more resource-rich and more resource-poor groups? Is perceived inequality heightened in these cases? Are some social classes and more economically vulnerable and deprived groups particularly hard hit? And what about countries which experienced more mixed repercussions from the crisis, how do negative economic contexts impact on the political sphere, for example? Do these factors spur new political ruptures, critiques of neoliberalism, or newfound support for the extreme right parties as would seem to be suggested by UKIP’s success in their campaign for Brexit as well as Marine Le Pen’s rise in the polls or Poland’s emboldened and ultraconservative Law and Justice Party?

Economic crises have historically provided opportunities through opening up new areas of contention and the restructuring of political space for the mobilization of various groups. Particularly in those countries worst hit by the crisis, large protests took place as European governments were blamed for the negative economic circumstances. Protest parties or “movement parties” (della Porta et al. 2017) such as Syriza, Podemos and the Movimento 5 Stelle have also been able to attract large proportions of electoral support across the continent. In this way, the links between economic and political crises have been further emphasized, broadening their critiques to the entire political system and fostering requests for “real democracy now” such as with Spain’s Indignados movement or calls for more social justice and rising opposition to inequality such as with #Occupy” (della Porta 2015).

At this time where the political context is rife with diverse sources of dissatisfaction, it appears particularly important to understand how the crisis has affected the perceptions and experiences of different sectors of the public in different countries as well as the diverse types of political responses that citizens have taken in reaction (see also Giugni and Grasso 2017, Temple and Grasso 2017). Exploring these dynamics in diverse contexts is one of the key contributions of this volume. Despite the central importance of investigating these questions in the current historical juncture, the scholarly literature is fragmented and underdeveloped in key areas. There is little research on the economic correlates of populist attitudes, and the electoral and non-electoral participation literatures tend to talk past each other. The political science literature on the impact of the economy on political activity is narrowly focused on the widely tested theory of economic voting suggesting that individuals reward incumbents when the economy is doing well but punish them when the economy is doing badly. As such, the chapters in this vol...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Citizens and the Crisis: Perceptions, Experiences, and Responses to the Great Recession in Nine Democracies
• Part I. Citizens, the Crisis, and Institutional Politics
• Part II. Citizens, the Crisis, and Extra-Institutional Politics
• Part III. The Social Bases of the Crisis
• Back Matter