scholarly journals Beyond the 2008 Great Recession: Economic factors and electoral support for the radical left in Europe

2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 358-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raul Gomez ◽  
Luis Ramiro
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Social Democrats ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Radical Left

One of the most striking political developments occurring during the Great Recession has been the growth of the radical left in some European countries. Though the literature is far from conclusive, it has generally been argued that the economy is not a main reason driving people’s support for non-mainstream parties (particularly the Greens and the radical right). In this article, we contend that this is not the case for radical left parties (RLPs), which despite pursuing other agendas do still compete very strongly on economic issues. Using individual-level data for 56 elections taking place between 1996 and 2016 in 15 European countries, we find a positive effect of unemployment on support for RLPs, and only very weak evidence that this effect depends on voters’ ideology or whether the mainstream (Social Democrats) left is in office. We conclude that unemployment enables the radical left to increase its support regardless of the political context but does not significantly change by itself the ideological makeup of its electorate.

scholarly journals Do changes in material circumstances drive support for populist radical parties? Panel data evidence from The Netherlands during the Great Recession, 2007–2015

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Gidron ◽  
Jonathan Jan Benjamin Mijs
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Economic Downturns ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Radical Left

Political developments since the 2008 financial crisis have sparked renewed interest in the electoral implications of economic downturns. Research describes a correlation between adverse economic conditions and support for radical parties campaigning on the populist promise to retake the country from a corrupt elite. But does the success of radical parties following economic crises rely on people who are directly affected? To answer this question, we examine whether individual-level changes in economic circumstances drive support for radical parties across the ideological divide. Analyzing eight waves of panel data collected in The Netherlands, before, during, and after the Great Recession (2007–2015), we demonstrate that people who experienced an income loss became more supportive of the radical left but not of the radical right. Looking at these parties’ core concerns, we find that income loss increased support for income redistribution championed by the radical left, but less so for the anti-immigration policies championed by the radical right. Our study establishes more directly than extant research the micro-foundations of support for radical parties across the ideological divide.

scholarly journals Do Changes in Material Circumstances Drive Support for Populist Radical Parties? Panel Data Evidence from the Netherlands during the Great Recession, 2007–2015

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (5) ◽  
pp. 637-650 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Gidron ◽  
Jonathan J B Mijs
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Radical Right ◽  
Income Loss ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Economic Downturns ◽  
The 2008 Financial Crisis ◽  
Radical Left

AbstractPolitical developments since the 2008 financial crisis have sparked renewed interest in the electoral implications of economic downturns. Research describes a correlation between adverse economic conditions and support for radical parties campaigning on the populist promise to retake the country from a corrupt elite. But does the success of radical parties following economic crises rely on people who are directly affected? To answer this question, we examine whether individual-level changes in economic circumstances drive support for radical parties across the ideological divide. Analysing eight waves of panel data collected in the Netherlands, before, during, and after the Great Recession (2007–2015), we demonstrate that people who experienced an income loss became more supportive of the radical left but not of the radical right. Looking at these parties’ core concerns, we find that income loss increased support for income redistribution championed by the radical left, but less so for the anti-immigration policies championed by the radical right. Our study establishes more directly than extant research the micro-foundations of support for radical parties across the ideological divide.

scholarly journals The Great Recession worsened blood pressure and blood glucose levels in American adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (13) ◽  
pp. 3296-3301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Teresa Seeman ◽  
Duncan Thomas ◽  
Sharon Stein Merkin ◽  
Kari Moore ◽  
Karol Watson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Glucose Levels ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Negative Impacts ◽  
And Control

Longitudinal, individual-specific data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) provide support for the hypothesis that the 2008 to 2010 Great Recession (GR) negatively impacted the health of US adults. Results further advance understanding of the relationship by (i) illuminating hypothesized greater negative impacts in population subgroups exposed to more severe impacts of the GR and (ii) explicitly controlling for confounding by individual differences in age-related changes in health over time. Analyses overcome limitations of prior work by (i) employing individual-level data that avoid concerns about ecological fallacy associated with prior reliance on group-level data, (ii) using four waves of data before the GR to estimate and control for underlying individual-level age-related trends, (iii) focusing on objective, temporally appropriate health outcomes rather than mortality, and (iv) leveraging a diverse cohort to investigate subgroup differences in the GR’s impact. Innovative individual fixed-effects modeling controlling for individual-level age-related trajectories yielded substantively important insights: (i) significant elevations post-GR for blood pressure and fasting glucose, especially among those on medication pre-GR, and (ii) reductions in prevalence and intensity of medication use post-GR. Important differences in the effects of the GR are seen across subgroups, with larger effects among younger adults (who are likely still in the labor force) and older homeowners (whose declining home wealth likely reduced financial security, with less scope for recouping losses during their lifetime); least affected were older adults without a college degree (whose greater reliance on Medicare and Social Security likely provided more protection from the recession).

scholarly journals Radical-Left Populism during the Great Recession: Podemos and Its Competition with the Established Radical Left

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 108-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis Ramiro ◽  
Raul Gomez
Keyword(s):  
Economic Crisis ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Left Party ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Populist Party ◽  
Radical Left

The 2008 Great Recession has altered party allegiances in many countries. This has been very visible in some of the countries hardest hit by the crisis, such as Spain. The Spanish case stands out as the only one in which a fully newly created radical-left populist party, Podemos, has attracted sizeable support. Its success is more intriguing given its capacity to attract many former supporters of the established radical left, Izquierda Unida. This article analyses what factors explain the support for the new radical-left populist party Podemos, identifying the individual-level features that lead voters to support it rather than an already established anti-austerity radical-left party. As the results show, Podemos supporters do not correspond to the conventional descriptions of populist voters, the losers of ‘globalisation’ and the economic crisis. Instead, a combination of elements – protest, anti-mainstream sentiment and unfulfilled expectations – distinguishes Podemos supporters from the established radical-left electorate.

scholarly journals Betrayed by the Elites: How Corruption Amplifies the Political Effects of Recessions

2021 ◽  
pp. 001041402110474
Author(s):  
Carlos Sanz ◽  
Albert Solé-Ollé ◽  
Pilar Sorribas-Navarro
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Political Corruption ◽  
The Political ◽  
Difference In Difference ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
History Of ◽  
Municipal Level

We investigate whether corruption amplifies the political effects of economic crises. Using Spanish municipal-level data and a difference-in-difference strategy, we find that local unemployment shocks experienced during the Great Recession (2008–2015) increased political fragmentation. This effect was four times larger in municipalities exposed to malfeasance than in municipalities without a history of political corruption. We bolster this evidence by showing that, conditional on province and population strata fixed effects, there is no evidence of differential pre-trends. We also find that the interaction of unemployment and corruption harms the two traditional main parties and benefits especially the new party on the left ( Podemos).

The Great Recession and Electoral Politics, 2007–2016

2020 ◽  
pp. 32-62
Author(s):  
Timothy Hellwig ◽  
Yesola Kweon ◽  
Jack Vowles
Keyword(s):  
Great Recession ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
National Elections ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
The Global Financial Crisis ◽  
The Comparative Study ◽  
The Impact

This chapter reviews the political and economic context of the global financial crisis (GFC). We first examine the origins and immediate effects of the GFC and the ‘Great Recession’ that it spawned. Ranging beyond the European focus of the research so far, we examine the impact of the crisis across the member countries of the OECD and the ways in which that variation is shaping the contexts of individual-level behaviour. We then examine patterns of electoral volatility and the changing nature of party systems before turning to consider the reasons why some governments were defeated and why others survived. Across these outcomes, analyses show that the impact of economic factors on political outcomes varied depending on their timing: before, during, or after the GFC. The chapter concludes by introducing our main sources of data: cross-sectional individual-level survey data from twenty-five national elections in OECD democracies from 2011 to 2016 sourced from Module 4 of the Comparative Study of Electoral Systems (CSES); macro-data for thirty-five OECD democracies from 1990 to 2016; and a pooled set of 113 post-election surveys from twenty-four OECD countries between 1996 and 2017.

Returning to the parental home after the Great Recession: a matter of partnership dissolution or unemployment?

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fernanda Mazzotta ◽  
Lavinia Parisi
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Parental Home ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Returning Home ◽  
Two Peaks

Abstract This article provides an analysis of the return of young people to the parental home in 23 European countries. It analyses the effect of the Great Recession, considering the period between 2006 and 2014 and controlling for two key determinants of living arrangements: employment and partnership. The main finding is that the Great Recession has increased the probability of returning home: two peaks are observed in 2009 and 2011, with a percentage of returnees almost double that at the beginning of the period under consideration. Returning home seems more closely linked to partnership than to employment.

scholarly journals As Goes the City? Older Americans’ Home Upkeep in the Aftermath of the Great Recession

2019 ◽  
Vol 67 (2) ◽  
pp. 379-397
Author(s):  
Markus H Schafer ◽  
Jason Settels ◽  
Laura Upenieks
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Older Americans ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Fixed Effects Regression ◽  
Community Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract The private home is a crucial site in the aging process, yet the upkeep of this physical space often poses a challenge for community-dwelling older adults. Previous efforts to explain variation in disorderly household conditions have relied on individual-level characteristics, but ecological perspectives propose that home environments are inescapably nested within the dynamic socioeconomic circumstances of surrounding spatial contexts, such as the metro area. We address this ecological embeddedness in the context of the Great Recession, an event in which some U.S. cities saw pronounced and persistent declines across multiple economic indicators while other areas rebounded more rapidly. Panel data (2005–6 and 2010–11) from a national survey of older adults were linked to interviewer home evaluations and city-level economic data. Results from fixed-effects regression support the hypothesis that older adults dwelling in struggling cities experienced an uptick in disorderly household conditions. Findings emphasize the importance of city-specificity when probing effects of a downturn. Observing changes in home upkeep also underscores the myriad ways in which a city’s most vulnerable residents— older adults, in particular—are affected by its economic fortunes.

scholarly journals A Clinical Economy of Speculation: Financial Trading and Gambling Disorder in Spain

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-293 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Núñez
Keyword(s):  
Financial Markets ◽  
Great Recession ◽  
Gambling Disorder ◽  
Problem Gambler ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
Financial Trading ◽  
Financial Speculation ◽  
The Individual

This article concerns itself with financial traders in Spain who have been diagnosed with gambling disorder. It analyzes what I call the clinical economy of speculation, in which the category of problem gambler is repurposed to draw new lines around proper financial trading. In exploring the expansion of post–financial crisis regulatory mechanisms for credit and debt, as well as widening inequalities across the field of investment, I depict how both traders and clinicians become invested in medicalizing trading as gambling disorder. My theorizing interrogates whether and why common speculative practices are seen as sick and unsafe when everyday people, instead of banks and other financial institutions, perform them. I argue that the pathologized trader is an attempt to regulate, at the individual level, the increasing use of borrowed capital to make financial profits. The commodification of debt, however, is not a gender-neutral development. Female traders pay a greater price for venturing into the heights of finance. This focus on gender brings into view the redefinition of credit and debt within the domain of trading, and shows the role of debt-fueled financial speculation in the expansion of financial markets. These ethnographic findings are particularly relevant in a country like Spain, where the Great Recession has bred more new millionaires than ever before, even as the smaller fish of the economy are being medicalized and sometimes even incarcerated.

Partisanship, Militarized International Conflict, and Electoral Support for the Incumbent

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 172-183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shane P. Singh ◽  
Jaroslav Tir
Keyword(s):  
Political Behavior ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
International Conflict ◽  
Vote Choice ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Interstate Disputes ◽  
Electoral Support ◽  
Level Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Militarized Interstate Disputes

Comparative politics scholarship often neglects to consider how militarized interstate disputes (MIDs) shape political behavior. In this project, we advance an argument that considers voter responses to international conflict at the individual level. In particular, we consider how the well-known conditioning effects of partisanship manifest in relation to militarized international conflict. Examining individual- and macro-level data across ninety-seven elections in forty-two countries over the 1996–2011 period, we find consistent evidence of militarized conflict impacting vote choice. This relationship is, however, moderated by partisanship, conflict side (initiator or target), and conflict hostility level. Among non-copartisan voters, the incumbent benefits the most electorally from initiating low-hostility MIDs or when the country is a target of a high-hostility MID; the opposite scenarios (initiator of a high-hostility MID or target of a low-hostility MID) lead to punishment among this voter group. Copartisans, meanwhile, tend to either maintain or intensify their support in most scenarios we examine; when a country is targeted in a low-hostility MID, copartisan support erodes mildly.

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