Who changed parties during the Great Recession? A study of 12 Western European countries

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Author(s)
Rama, Jose
Zanotti, Lisa
Griffith University Author(s)
Year published
2020
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Electoral volatility levels after the Great Recession of 2008 were record high in most Western European countries. Among the main causes of this electoral instability are the negative development of the economy, the crisis of the traditional parties and the change in the issues of political competition. At the individual level, it is unknown what factors caused voters to change their party preference after the Great Recession. Furthermore, in general, little is known about the differences between a stable and volatile voter. This study of 12 Western European countries after the economic crisis concludes that the economic ...
View more >Electoral volatility levels after the Great Recession of 2008 were record high in most Western European countries. Among the main causes of this electoral instability are the negative development of the economy, the crisis of the traditional parties and the change in the issues of political competition. At the individual level, it is unknown what factors caused voters to change their party preference after the Great Recession. Furthermore, in general, little is known about the differences between a stable and volatile voter. This study of 12 Western European countries after the economic crisis concludes that the economic voter model did not always explain the change in party preference after 2008, while sentiments of political dissatisfaction would help us to understand the change of parties between elections.
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View more >Electoral volatility levels after the Great Recession of 2008 were record high in most Western European countries. Among the main causes of this electoral instability are the negative development of the economy, the crisis of the traditional parties and the change in the issues of political competition. At the individual level, it is unknown what factors caused voters to change their party preference after the Great Recession. Furthermore, in general, little is known about the differences between a stable and volatile voter. This study of 12 Western European countries after the economic crisis concludes that the economic voter model did not always explain the change in party preference after 2008, while sentiments of political dissatisfaction would help us to understand the change of parties between elections.
View less >
Journal Title
International Journal of Sociology
Volume
78
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2020 Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Subject
Political science
Historical studies
Social Sciences
Sociology
Economic voting
Electoral volatility
Europe