Democratic dissatisfaction in Southern Europe: the political consequences of the crisis

该项目希望有助于更好地了解南欧危机的政治后果，其动机是对民主的满意度空前下降。这个项目的主要假设是，南欧国家正在经历一场合法化危机。公民对民主的不满是响应性差距的结果：即公民认为政府不再响应他们的要求。该项目将研究代表权和合法性危机是如何发生的及其后果。更具体地说，该项目回答了三个主要问题：1.如何解释南欧的民主不满？该项目的这一部分将检验核心论点：鉴于欧元区成员国身份的制度限制，合法化危机源于各国政府没有对公民的授权做出回应。民主制度的关键原则之一是，如果选民认为政府表现不够好，就为他们提供另一种选择。这里提出的论点是，这场危机破坏了南欧投票的这一基本功能：选举无法产生政党成为彼此真正替代品的政府。2.民主不满对对国家民主的态度有何影响？该项目将辩称，民主不满的增加和代表制联系的破裂对国家层面政治的几个维度的态度产生了强烈影响：1)紧缩政策对公民对民主制度的期望产生影响，并促使公民从自由和最低限度的民主观点转向更多民主，因此更重视公民的社会权利。2)该项目还将测试合法化危机是否增加了对直接民主制度的需求；3)该项目将考虑是否由于这种代表制分解，一些公民对政治的参与减少，而另一些公民变得更加活跃。在此过程中，还将探讨分析国家之间的差异。3.民主不满如何影响南欧对欧盟和欧元的态度？该项目将评估危机的影响，包括对欧洲联盟项目的支持和看法，以及南欧公民支持欧元区解体的条件。该项目的最后一步将填补学科中的两个主要空白：提供关于公民支持欧元动机的最新描述，并开辟一条研究债务偿还支持和纾困协议条件的新途径。

This project wants to contribute to a better understanding of the political consequences of the crisis in Southern Europe and is motivated by the unprecedented decrease in levels of satisfaction with democracy. The main hypothesis of this project is that Southern European countries are undergoing a crisis of legitimation. Citizens' democratic dissatisfaction is the consequence of a responsiveness gap: that is, citizens' perception that governments are not responding to their demands anymore. The project will study how this crisis of representation and legitimation is taking place and its consequences. More specifically, the project answers to three main questions:1. What explains democratic dissatisfaction in Southern Europe? This part of the project will test the core argument: the crisis of legitimation stems from national governments not being responsive to citizens' mandate given the institutional constraints of euro membership. One of the key principles of democratic systems is to provide an alternative to voters if they believe that the government has not performed well enough. The argument put forward here is that the crisis has undermined this essential function of voting in Southern Europe: elections are not able to generate governments in which political parties become a real alternative to each other. 2. What is the impact of democratic dissatisfaction on attitudes towards national democracy? The project will argue that the increase in democratic dissatisfaction and the breakup of the representation link has a strong impact on attitudes in several dimensions of national-level politics: 1) austerity policies have an impact in the expectations that citizens have from a democratic system and make citizens depart from a liberal and minimal view on democracy to conceive democracies more as a result, placing more weight on the social rights of citizens 2) the project will also test whether the crisis of legitimation increases the demand for institutions of direct democracy; 3) the project will account for whether, as a result of this representation breakup, some citizens have become less engaged with politics and others have become more mobilised. In doing this, differences between the countries of analysis will also be explored. 3. How does democratic dissatisfaction shape attitudes towards the European Union and the euro in Southern Europe? The project will assess the implications of the crisis in terms of the support and views about the European Union project and also the conditions under which citizens of Southern Europe would support a breakup of the Eurozone. This last stream of the project will fill two main gaps in the discipline: to provide an updated account of citizens' motivations to support the euro and open a new avenue of research on the support for debt repayment and the conditions of bailout agreements.