Suchergebnisse

The economic crisis has meant that radical left parties in Europe have been faced with changing socioeconomic environments. In this study we examine how European radical left parties have responded to the crisis in terms of their societal mobilization strategies and seek to explain their responses. Discussions in the relevant literature advocate that party-specific characteristics matter greatly in how parties mobilize in society and establish relations with social groups in times of stability. But do they continue to be as important at times of dramatic change, when new realities emerge in society? We look at the cases of the Greek (Greek Communist Party and Coalition of the Radical Left), Irish (Sinn Féin), Portuguese (Portuguese Communist Party and Bloco) and Spanish (Spanish Communist Party/United Left) radical left parties, which are alike at the country level but exhibit differences at the party level. Utilizing data from an original expert survey, we show that both ideology and organizational legacy throw considerable light on the observed variation among the six radical left parties' societal responses to the crisis. In this way, they ensure continuity rather than change.

The ways in which political actors form positions on European integration in the face of exogenous shocks, such as the financial crisis that spilled over to the Eurozone countries, have become a key question in studies of politics in Europe. In the article, we show that party system polarization over European integration has increased during the crisis, but only with respect to the parties' public stance. Instead, the crisis does not appear to pose a real threat to the consensus on the European Union among party elites serving in public office, which remains almost as strong as before. Hence, a so far unconsidered consequence of the crisis may concern a mounting tension inside political parties, between a leadership that is more sensitive to popular pressures and to Euroscepticism and public office holders that reiterate the traditional elite consensus on Europe.

Introducing the topic and the concepts / Giorgos Charalambous and Gregoris Ioannou -- The Russian Narodniks and their relationship to Russian Marxism / Richard Mullin -- Social democracy and the temptation of populism between the world wars : France in a comparative perspective / Fabien Escalona -- Historicizing the populist temptation : the case of Eurocommunism / Ioannis Balampanidis -- Corbyn, Sanders and the contestation of neoliberal hegemony / Owen Worth -- 'Make way for the people!' : left-wing populism in the rhetoric of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's 2012 and 2017 presidential campaigns / Paolo Chiocchetti -- New left populism contesting and taking power : the cases of Syriza and Podemos / Alexandros Kioupkiolis and Giorgos Katsambekis -- Hijacking the left? : the populist and radical right in two post-Communist polities / Vassilis Petsinis -- Mapping anti-austerity discourse : populism, sloganeering, and/or realism? / David J. Bailey -- West European trade unions, labour and 'the people' : from the golden era to the times of austerity / Gregoris Ioannou and Giorgos Charalambous -- Populism as deceptive invocations of the popular : a political approach / Seraphim Seferiades -- Conclusions : populism and left radicalism in Europe across time and space / Giorgos Charalambous and Gregoris Ioannou.