Marino, B. (2015) “Liberal-democratic parties face unprecedented challenges, but remain a viable part of European party systems“, LSE EUROPP, 18 Μαρτίου.
Liberal-democratic parties have been a stable feature of several party systems in Europe, but in recent years parties such as the Liberal Democrats in the UK and the FDP in Germany have experienced significant downturns in support. Bruno Marino assesses the challenges that such parties now face in European elections. He argues that while there are notable problems facing certain parties, such as the growth of new challengers on the far-left and far-right of the political spectrum, the notion that liberal-democratic parties are now on an irreversible decline is premature.
Are Europe’s traditional liberal-democratic parties under threat? All over Western Europe, they have been experiencing difficulties stemming from a variety of different sources. The 2014 European Parliament elections indicated that several liberal-democratic parties, including those in the UK, Italy, and Germany, were experiencing a serious backlash. Nevertheless, this situation, which has diverse and varied explanations, is not necessarily irreversible. Indeed the rise in support for the Spanish party Ciudadanosin recent weeks illustrates that this decline may only be temporary – or at least confined to individual countries.
As a first step, however, how can we classify a party as liberal-democratic in European party systems? An obvious starting point is to take parties that are members of the group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) in the European Parliament. In some cases, such as the UK, this makes the task fairly straightforward as the Liberal Democrats, as members of ALDE, clearly classify as a liberal-democratic party. In other cases, however, the situation is more complex, as smaller parties may not have enough support to win representation in the European Parliament and therefore lack strong links with European Party families. In Italy, for instance, no party associated with ALDE managed to win a seat in the 2014 elections.
Σχετικές αναρτήσεις:
- Katsanidou, A. & Otjes, S. (2015) “Mapping the Greek party system after the 2015 elections: how the economy and Europe have merged into a single issue“, LSE EUROPP, 25 Φεβρουαρίου.
- Afonso, A., Zartaloudis, S. & Papadopoulos, Y. (2014) “How party linkages shape austerity politics: clientelism and fiscal adjustment in Greece and Portugal during the eurozone crisis“, Journal of European Public Policy, 29 Οκτωβρίου.
- Zikos, A. (2013) “Party Euroscepticism in Greece during the Financial Crisis, the Cases of SYRIZA and Chrysi Avgi”, National and Kapodestrian University of Athens, Ιούνιος.