Political Representation and Citizenship in Portugal : From Crisis to Renewal

Representative democracies are facing huge challenges that stem from long trends of citizens’ dissatisfaction and weakening of political legitimacy, on the one hand, and the effects of global economic and financial crisis on electoral alignments and the patterns of government, on the other. This volume uses the Portuguese case as an important case study to examine the long-term debate on the crisis of representative democracies with the attempt to assess the impact of the Great Recession. In particular, this study examines two relevant dimensions, namely citizens’ participation and mobilization, as well as longitudinal evolution of the linkages between voters and MPs, highlighting both continuities and changes. Through a wide and rich data collection and the comparative perspective adopted, this study furthers our understanding of how Portuguese democracy has bounced back and has emerged as a peculiar case among European democracies, especially if we look at innovate democratic practices - at both citizens’ and elites’ level – that have been adopted after the Great Recession. Cover 1 Political Representationand Citizenship inPortugal 2 Political Representationand Citizenship inPortugalFrom Crisis to Renewal 4 Copyright page 5 Contents 6 List of Figures and Tables 8 List of Abbreviations 10 Acknowledgments 12 Introduction 14 Part 1: New and Old Patterns of Citizenship 36 Chapter 1 38 Bridging the Gap? 38 Reasons and Consequences of an Unprecedented Pact 39 Data and Methods 43 Analysis 44 Conclusions 53 Notes 54 References 55 Chapter 2 58 Politics in Austerity 58 Austerity and Anti-austerity Politics in Portugal between the Street and the Polls 61 Player Interaction and Patterns of Institutionalization 66 Back to the Street: New Claims, Open Protests, and Latent Conflicts in Post-austerity Portugal 70 Conclusions: From Social Movements to Institutions and Back Again 74 Notes 76 References 77 Chapter 3 82 Democratic Legitimacy and Trust in Political Institutions in Portugal before and after the Great Recession 82 Democratic Legitimacy and Trust in Institutions: Diffuse and Specific Democratic Support 83 Diffuse and Specific Support of Democracy in Portugal before, during, and after the Crisis 85 Data and Analysis 90 Findings 91 Conclusions 96 Note 97 References 97 Chapter 4 100 Political Participation of the Young versus Old Age Cohorts before and after the Great Recession 100 The Literature on Economic Crises and the Political Participation of Young People 101 Data, Methodology, and Hypotheses 104 Findings 105 Discussion and Conclusion 110 Notes 112 References 112 Part 2: Parliamentary Representation before and after the Crisis 118 Chapter 5 120 Ideological and Policy Representation in Portugal before and after the Great Recession, 2008–20171 120 The Study of Political Representation: Theoretical Discussion 121 Data and Methods: Measuring Ideological and Policy Congruence 126 Voter-MP Congruence on Left-Right Ideological Identities 127 Voter-MP Socioeconomic Policy Congruence 130 Policy Congruence on Socioeconomic Issues in Portugal 131 Conclusions 134 Notes 137 References 138 Chapter 6 142 Gender and Political Representation before and after the Great Recession, 2008–20171 142 Political Representation and Ideological Congruence 143 Portugal: An Ideal CaseStudy 146 Data and Methods 148 Indicators of Policy Preferences 149 The Models 150 Testing for Gender Differences in Policy Preferences 152 Assessing the Power of Gender on Policy Preferences 153 Conclusion 156 Notes 157 References 158 Chapter 7 164 Opening the Black Box of “Constraining Dissensus” 164 Euroskepticism, Intraparty Dissent, and the Crisis: Literature Review 166 The Evolution of Euroskepticism before and after the Crisis: The Portuguese Case 169 Data and Methods 173 Results 174 Conclusion 180 Notes 182 References 183 Chapter 8 186 Legislative Activities before and after the Great Recession 186 Literature and Hypotheses 188 Data and Methods 192 Analysis 196 Conclusions 199 Notes 200 References 201 Chapter 9 204 Conclusions 204 Empirical Findings: The Impact of the Crisis in Portugal 205 Challenges for Political Representation and Future Research Prospects 208 References 211 Appendix 214 Index 218 About the Contributors 222 Introduction / Marco Lisi, André Freire and Emmanouil Tsatsanis -- Bridging the gap? : the changing relationship between the socialists and radical left in Portugal / Elisabetta De Giorgi and João Cancela -- Politics in austerity : strategic interactions between social movements and institutional actors in Portugal, 2010-2015 / Guya Accornero and Pedro Ramos Pinto -- Democratic legitimacy and trust in political institutions in Portugal before and after the Great Recession : transitory or lasting effects? / Emmanouil Tsatsanis and Ana Belchior -- Political participation of the young versus old age cohorts before and after the Great Recession : Portugal in a comparative perspective, 2008-2016 / André Freire, Vicente Valentim, Viriato Queiroga and Francisco Graça -- Ideological and policy representation in Portugal before and after the Great Recession, 2008-2017 / André Freire and Augusta Correia -- Gender and political representation before and after the Great Recession, 2008-2017 / Ana Prata, André Freire and Sofia Serra-Silva -- Opening the 'black box' : intra-party cohesion on European integration in Portugal before and after the crisis / Marco Lisi and Vera Ramalhete -- Legislative activities before and after the Great Recession : an analysis of unemployment and social welfare issues / Enrico Borghetto and Marco Lisi -- Conclusions / Marco Lisi, André Freire and Emmanouil Tsatsanis "This volume analyzes key dimensions of political representation and participation in Portugal, examining the impact of the economic crisis on the linkage between voters and elected representatives, contributing to assessing the significant changes that representative democracies have experienced and the factors that may boost their renewal"-- Provided by publisher