Marco Lisi

Party systems are crucial elements for the functioning of political systems and representative democracies. With several European countries experiencing significant changes recently, it is necessary to update our knowledge. This volume analyses party system changes in Europe in the 21st century by considering several dimensions such as interparty competition, the cleavage structure, electoral volatility and the emergence of new actors. The book describes the principal continuities and changes in party systems in Europe; analyzes the main explanations for these trends; and assesses the impact of the crisis on the patterns observed. By considering a wide range of Western and Eastern European countries, and focusing on the ‘parameters’ of party system change, this book seeks to fill an important gap in the literature through a comparative analysis of the evolution of party systems in Europe over the last decades. This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of political parties, party systems and politics, electoral behavior as well as more broadly to European politics, comparative politics. political representation and the quality of democracies.

Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy

André Freire

Emmanouil Tsatsanis

This book examines the political consequences of the economic crisis in Southern Europe from the perspective of a widening intergenerational divide. It focuses on the cases of Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain to fill the gap in the literature by examining various age-related rifts in post-crisis Southern Europe. Public discussion about the economic crisis of the late 2000s to mid-2010s in Southern Europe often refers to its impact on the region’s younger citizens, but not enough attention has been given to the political consequences of the crisis on the young. The comparative studies in the volume cover various thematic areas, such as electoral behaviour, political culture, democratic values, forms of political engagement and political representation. The overarching questions that the book attempts to answer are: a) to what extent and in what areas can one talk about an emergent generational divide in the region, and b) has the experience of the economic crisis been profound enough for young South Europeans to create a new ‘crisis political generation’? Many of the answers offered point to tangible effects of the crisis, but mostly in the sense of accentuating dynamics that already existed. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

A Generational Divide? Age-related Aspects of Political Transformation in Post-crisis Southern Europe

This book offers a critical overview on the literature on party change and provides original data on several dimensions of party organizations, focusing in particular on Portuguese political parties. The Portuguese case study will be used to illustrate how political parties evolve and the main differences in the trajectory experienced by parties in old democracies. Therefore, starting from the main theoretical contributions used to study party change, this book examines some key dimensions of the role played by political parties: ideological and programmatic orientations, the social basis of support, party organization, electoral campaigns and the elections of party leaders. Through a wide and rich data collection and the comparative perspective adopted, this book furthers our understanding of how Portuguese political parties have changed and the impact of this change on the quality of democracy.

Marco Lisi

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