Abstract
The chapter starts with an analysis of the channels of political representation within democracies, by emphasizing its diversity and interdependence. At the same time, it shows that one of the main effects of the 2008 Great Recession has been the decline of all institutionalized channels, be they through elections and parties, or be they through interest groups and associations. Indeed, the crisis of interest associations, trade unions included, and of neo-corporatist arrangements has been a factor of weakness in the management of the crisis: the governments lost one of the main factors of regulations through the interest intermediate structures. This situation is clearly new with respect to what happened during the crisis of 1929, in post-war reconstruction, and in some respects, even during the stagflation of the 1970s. The crisis of functional channels favoured the formulation of selective austerity policies that have ended up aggravating the effects of the crisis and at the same time have fuelled the use of non-conventional channels of political expression with protest movements. The chapter also highlights the national characteristics of the relationships among the different channels of representation, while emphasizing the flexibility in their use by voters as a common factor in all four cases.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
It should not be forgotten that in advanced democracies the public administration and the judiciary system, that is, the two pillars of the rule of law, can fulfil the functions of representation of interests and of transmission of demands, sometimes (as was the case for the judiciary in Italy and Spain) performing a supply function of party channels, sometimes a repressive function.
- 3.
In our case, it is sufficient to consider the new cleavages that characterize the EU: between Eastern Europe and Western Europe; between countries that are part of the euro-zone or not, and between strong and weak countries (such as Southern Europe) within the euro-zone.
- 4.
The other types, with reference to Western Europe, are the ‘Nordic model’ (Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway); the ‘Continental model’ (Belgium, Germany, France, Netherlands, Austria); and the ‘Anglo-Saxon model’ (Ireland and the UK). To these is often added a post-communist model or Eastern Europe model (Figs. 5.1 and 5.2).
- 5.
- 6.
In this vein we can see another interpretation of the responsiveness versus responsibility dilemma (see Mair 2009).
- 7.
This would also seem to be the case of the attitude of the Italian trade unions to pension reforms – aimed at achieving a gradual shift from a benefit method to a contribution method – designed to defend the existing system despite the functional and categorical distortions over time (Ferrera 1996, 2010).
- 8.
The debate on reforms of the labour market and industrial relations policies has had some interesting developments with the theme of so-called flexicurity (Clegg et al. 2015).
- 9.
On the relationship between globalization and the crisis of trade unionism, see the discussion at the twenty-first SASE Conference in Paris in July 2009 on labour and the global financial crisis, published in Socio-Economic Review, n. 8, (2010).
- 10.
Another indicator of the difficulty of trade unions is the growing freezing of the number of contract renewals (at least in public employment). This is typical of the Italian case. If generalized, this would indicate a difficulty of the union to go beyond a defensive and merely reactive position regarding the crisis.
- 11.
Please note that in this title ‘count’ recalls the famous piece by Stein Rokkan (see above). In our analysis we consider the channel of protest and the one of interests.
- 12.
We are aware that this database may under-estimate protest. However, the growth of protest in difficult times comes out with evidence.
- 13.
Data on youth unemployment in Southern Europe are dramatic: in July 2014, youth unemployment reached 5,062,000 young people (under twenty-five years) in the EU28, of which 3,327,000 were in in the euro zone. The highest values were recorded in Spain (53.8%), Greece (53.1% in May 2014), Italy (42.9%) and Croatia (41.5% in the second quarter of 2014). In the CIS report of 2014, 76% of respondents consider unemployment the main problem existing in Spain.
- 14.
Please note that non-cosmopolitan movements are not always local. We can think at the emergence of nationalists and extreme right movements and parties. In the Italian case this is what happens with the Northern League led by Salvini (Raniolo 2016).
- 15.
The referendum movement, the Purple people, the Girotondini, up to the VF-day of Grillo and his movement, or even the ‘rottamazione’ of Renzi after the 2013 elections.
- 16.
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Morlino, L., Raniolo, F. (2017). New Patterns in Interests and Movements. In: The Impact of the Economic Crisis on South European Democracies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52371-2_5
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