Muro, D. & Vidal Lorda, G. (2014) “Persistent unemployment poses a substantive threat to democracy in Southern European countries“, London School of Economics and Political Science, 13 Μαρτίου 2014.
The purpose of competitive elections is to reward good politicians and punish bad ones, but what happens if elections can no longer fulfil this role? Diego Muro and Guillem Vidal write that developments in Southern European countries since the start of the financial crisis have undermined the legitimising role of elections. Suffering from persistent unemployment rates, citizens’ frustration has been indiscriminately projected onto the key political institutions: the government, parliament, and political parties. They illustrate that the unemployment rate is the measure that best forecasts rising levels of political disaffection in these countries, and that voting for a change of government has little impact on citizens’ trust in politics.
The Great Recession that began in 2008 has brought about an exponential increase in political dissatisfaction with democracy in Southern Europe. Levels of distrust towards key political institutions – government, parliament and political parties – are at an all-time high in Greece, Portugal and Spain. As shown in Chart 1, Eurobarometer survey results between 1986 and 2013 indicate that a vast proportion of people in the Southern Mediterranean have grown sceptical of democracy, especially since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers, which is indicated in the figure with the vertical red dotted line.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- Wyplosz, Ch., (2014), “What you ought to know about the ECB and Unemployment”, Social Europe Journal, 18 Φεβρουαρίου.
- Arestis Ph., and M. Sawyer, (2014), “’Structural Reforms’ and Unemployment”, Triple Crisis, 16 Ιανουαρίου.
- Monastiriotis, V. and Martelli, A., (2013), “Beyond Rising Unemployment: Unemployment Risk, Crisis and Regional Adjustments in Greece”, Hellenic Observatory Papers on Greece and Southeast Europe, GreeSE Paper No.80, Δεκέμβριος.