Electoral Punishment and Protest Politics in Times of Crisis

Björn Bremer, Swen Hutter, Hanspeter Kriesi

Research output: Contribution to Book/Report typesChapterpeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This chapter links the political consequences of the Great Recession on protest and electoral politics. The economic voting literature offers important insights on how and under what conditions economic crises play out in the short run. However, it tends to ignore the closely connected dynamics of opposition in the electoral and protest arena. Therefore, this chapter combines the literature on economic voting with social movement research. It argues that economic protests act as a ‘signalling mechanism’ by attributing blame to decision-makers and by highlighting the political dimension of deteriorating economic conditions. Ultimately, massive protest mobilization should thus amplify the impact of economic hardship on electoral punishment. The empirical analysis to study this relationship combines the data on protest with a dataset of electoral outcomes in thirty European countries from 2000 to 2015. The results indicate that the dynamics of economic protests and electoral punishment are closely related and that protests contributed to the destabilisation of European party systems during the Great Recession.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationContention in Times of Crisis
Subtitle of host publicationRecession and Political Protest in Thirty European Countries
PublisherCambridge University Press
Pages227-250
Number of pages24
ISBN (Electronic)9781108891660
ISBN (Print)9781108835114
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2020
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • economic crisis
  • economic voting
  • electoral politics
  • mainstream parties
  • party systems
  • political left
  • protest politics

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