VOX

VOX
Author: José Rama
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2021-06-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000394484

This book examines VOX, the first major and electorally successful populist radical right-wing party to emerge in Spain since the death of General Franco, and the restoration of parliamentary democracy in the late 1970s. In December 2018, VOX, a new party on the populist radical right, entered the Andalusian regional parliament, and played the role of kingmaker in the ensuing government formation discussions. Since then, under the leadership of Santiago Abascal, VOX has earned political representation in numerous local, regional and national elections. The party attracted more than 3.6 million votes in the November 2019 general election, making VOX the third largest party in the Spanish Congress. In two years, the party has become a key political challenger and an important player in Spanish politics. This book explains the origins of the party, its ideology and relationship with democracy, its appeal with voters, and its similarities with (and differences from) other populist radical right parties in Europe. It draws upon a rich source of domestic as well as cross-national survey data and a systematic analysis of party manifestos which provide a detailed account of the rise of VOX and what its emergence means for Spanish politics. This volume will be of interest to scholars of comparative politics, political parties, voters and elections, Spanish politics, the populist radical right and populism in general.

The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain

The Regional Politics of Welfare in Italy, Spain and Great Britain
Author: Davide Vampa
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2016-09-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 3319390074

This book is a study of the increasing territorial variations in the development of sub-national welfare systems that have occurred as an effect of the decentralization of health care and social assistance policies in Italy, Spain and Great Britain. The author examines the political factors that underlie these variations by combining cross-regional and cross-country comparisons using mixed methods. Vampa’s main finding is that regionalist parties have played a key role in sub-national welfare building and have used social policy to strengthen their legitimacy in the political struggle against central authorities. In this context, functional political competition between Left and Right has been partly replaced by territorial competition between Centre and Periphery as the main determinant of social policy making. Additionally, mainstream left-wing parties have been torn between maintaining territorial uniformity in social protection and responding to demands for more extensive social services tailored to the needs and preferences of specific regional communities. This book will be of use to academics and policy makers interested in political economy, devolution/decentralisation, welfare, and party politics.

European Party Politics in Times of Crisis

European Party Politics in Times of Crisis
Author: Swen Hutter
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 449
Release: 2019-06-27
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1108483798

A study of party competition in Europe since 2008 aids understanding of the recent, often dramatic, changes taking place in European politics.

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

Party System Change, the European Crisis and the State of Democracy
Author: Marco Lisi
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2018-08-06
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1351377647

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.

Europe's Crises

Europe's Crises
Author: Manuel Castells
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 476
Release: 2017-12-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1509524908

Today, the European Union is facing a crisis as serious as anything it has experienced since its origins more than half a century ago. What makes this so serious is that it is not a single crisis but rather multiple crises – the euro crisis, the migration/refugee crisis, Brexit, etc. – that overlap and reinforce one another, creating a cumulative array of challenges that threatens the very survival of the EU. For the first time in its history, there is a real risk that the EU could break up. This volume brings together sociologists, economists and political scientists from around Europe to shed light on how the EU got into this predicament. It argues that the multiple crises that have plagued the European Union in the last decade stem to a large extent from flaws in its construction and that these flaws are consequences of the political processes that led to the formation of the EU – in other words, the decisions that made possible the development of the EU created the conditions for the multiple crises it experiences today. This timely and wide-ranging book on one of the most important issues of our time will be of great interest to students and scholars in the social sciences, to politicians and policy-makers and to anyone concerned with Europe and its future.

Voters and Parties in the Spanish Political Space

Voters and Parties in the Spanish Political Space
Author: Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2016-04-08
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1134933339

This book deals with the structure of Spanish politics: how citizens and parties locate themselves in political space, and how these actors make decisions based on their positions in the various dimensions this space consists of. The authors of this volume address the questions surrounding the dimensions of Spanish politics, the effect of the nationalist issue (Catalonia and the Basque Country) in Spanish political competition, the reasons for which the Catalans and the Basques appear as more left-wing than the rest of Spain, the ways in which Spanish voters make their choices, the political issues that are more polarizing in Spain, the background behind why the two main parties hold such similar positions on redistribution, whether the territorial conflict has an impact on preferences for redistribution and how the immigration issue alters political competition. All of these questions rely on the spatial theory of politics for their analyses. The data used in all the chapters come from a survey that was especially designed with the aim of addressing all these topics that are examined in the book. This is the first exhaustive and rigorous explanation of how Spanish politics work based on the positions that parties and citizens occupy in the political space. This book was published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Crisis Elections, New Contenders and Government Formation

Crisis Elections, New Contenders and Government Formation
Author: Anna Bosco
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2018-12-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 135133235X

The parliamentary elections of 2015–16 in Greece, Spain and Portugal had extraordinary consequences, bringing repeat elections, unprecedented processes of government formation and uncharted government outcomes. Greece formed a coalition of radical left and radical right and Portugal its first government supported by the communist party while Spain took ten months to get a government. These developments are especially astonishing in three states which in previous decades were a byword for democratic stability. After the transitions following the fall of their dictatorships in the 1970s, Greece, Spain and Portugal established bipolar electoral competition and predictable patterns of government formation. But more recently, all three countries have been in the frontline of the economic crisis and austerity implementation, triggering electoral realignments and turning the radical left into a major player. This volume offers essential understanding of the political destabilisation of Southern Europe. It includes detailed analyses of all five ‘crisis elections’ and of Greece’s bailout referendum. It also provides studies of the five ‘new contender’ parties (SYRIZA, Podemos, Ciudadanos, the Bloco Esquerda and the Portuguese Communist Party) which played a key role in government formation for the first time. The chapters originally published as a special issue in South European Society and Politics.

The Politics of Polarisation

The Politics of Polarisation
Author: Anna Bosco
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2022-08-22
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1000646467

Focusing on Italy, Spain and Greece, this book explores the extent of polarisation, as well as its causes, characteristics and consequences. It investigates varied manifestations of polarised politics including leader polarisation, policy polarisation and affective polarisation as well as providing case studies of polarised elections taking place at multiple levels. In recent years, polarisation has been a key feature of South European politics. Deep antagonism has moved party leaders against each other, hindered parliamentary and governmental cooperation, and triggered a cascade effect of harsh divisions among elites and citizens. Beyond the left-right axis, the chapters in this volume highlight multiple dimensions around which parties and voters polarise: the split around sovereign bailouts in Greece, the territorial cleavage in Spain, the divisions around immigration and European integration in Italy. This volume offers essential understanding of the specific features of polarisation in different national contexts and the consequences for political competition and government instability. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.