Table Of ContentProtest Elections and Challenger
Parties
Both in Greece in 2012 and Italy in 2013, it took two elections to form a government. A
repeat parliamentary contest was required in Greece and the unprecedented re-election of
the outgoing President of the Republic in Italy before a cabinet could be formed. Against a
background of economic crisis and national austerity, both countries experienced ‘protest
elections’ in which the overriding concern for an unusually large proportion of voters
was not to choose a government but to express dissent. The outcome included record-
breaking electoral volatility, the decline of bipolarism, the startling rise of challenger parties
and the transformation of national patterns of government formation, including experi-
ments with grand coalitions and technocrat-led cabinets. These developments sent shock
waves through Europe and beyond, suggesting Southern Europe might be drifting towards
ungovernability.
The volume offers analyses of the key electoral contests at the parliamentary, presidential
and local government levels, complemented by special studies of two key challenger parties,
Beppe Grillo’s Five Star Movement in Italy and Golden Dawn in Greece. An introductory
comparative overview traces the process of convergence between the political systems of
Italy and Greece which appears to have been triggered by the economic crisis.
This book was originally published as a special issue of South European Society and
Politics.
Susannah Verney is Assistant Professor of European Integration at the University of Athens.
Anna Bosco is Associate Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Trieste.
South European Society and Politics series
Series editors:
Susannah Verney, University of Athens, Greece
Anna Bosco, University of Trieste, Italy
The parallel regime transitions of the 1970s, when Southern Europe was the vanguard of
the ‘third wave’ of democratisation, the impact of EU membership and Europeanisation
and more recently, the region’s central role in the eurozone crisis have all made Southern
Europe a distinctive area of interest for social science scholars. The South European Society
and Politics book series promotes new empirical research into the domestic politics
and society of South European states. The series, open to a broad range of social science
approaches, offers comparative thematic volumes covering the region as a whole and
on occasion, innovative single-country studies. Its geographical scope includes both
‘old’ and ‘new’ Southern Europe, defined as Italy, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Malta
and Turkey.
Southern Europe and the Financial Earthquake
Coping with the First Phase of the International Crisis
Edited by Susannah Verney, Anna Bosco and Marina Costa Lobo
Europeanisation of Public Policy in
Southern Europe
Comparative Political Economy from the 2000s to the Crisis
Edited by Canan Balkir, H. Tolga Bolukbasi and Ebru Ertugal
Transformations of the Radical Left in Southern Europe
Bringing Society Back In?
Edited by Myrto Tsakatika and Marco Lisi
Elections in Hard Times: Southern Europe 2010–11
Edited by Anna Bosco and Susannah Verney
Voters and Parties in the Spanish Political Space
Edited by Ignacio Sánchez-Cuenca and
Elias Dinas
New and Alternative Movements in Spain
The Left, Identity and Globalizing Processes
Edited by John Karamichas
Previously published in the journal South European Society and Politics
Europeanization and the Southern The South European Right in the
Periphery 21st Century
Edited by Kevin Featherstone and Italy, France and Spain
George Kazamias Edited by Jocelyn A. J. Evans
Who Governs Southern Europe? Spain’s ‘Second Transition’?
Edited by Pedro Tavares de Almeida, The Socialist government of
Nancy Bermeo and António Costa Pinto José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
Edited by Bonnie N. Field
Spain and Portugal in the European
Union Dealing with the Legacy of
The First Fifteen Years Authoritarianism
Edited by Paul Christopher Manuel and The ‘Politics of the Past’ in Southern
Sebastián Royo European Democracies
Edited by António Costa Pinto and
Mobilising Politics and Society?
Leonardo Morlino
The EU Convention’s Impact on Southern
Europe Perspectives of National Elites on
Edited by Sonia Lucarelli and European Citizenship
Claudio Radaelli A South European View
Edited by Nicolò Conti, Maurizio Cotta
Reinventing Democracy
and Pedro Tavares de Almeida
Grassroots Movements in Portugal
Edited by João Arriscado Nunes and Euroscepticism in Southern Europe
Boaventura de Sousa Santos A Diachronic Perspective
Edited by Susannah Verney
When Greeks think about Turks
The View from Anthropology Turkey and the EU: Accession and
Edited by Dimitrios Theodossopoulos Reform
Edited by Gamze Avci and Ali Çarkoˇglu
Party Change in Southern
Europe
Edited by Anna Bosco and
Leonardo Morlino
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Protest Elections and Challenger
Parties
Italy and Greece in the Economic Crisis
Edited by
Susannah Verney and Anna Bosco
First published 2014
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Contents
Citation Information ix
Notes on Contributors xi
1. Living Parallel Lives: Italy and Greece in an Age of Austerity 1
Susannah Verney and Anna Bosco
2. Five Stars and a Cricket. Beppe Grillo Shakes Italian Politics 31
Fabio Bordignon and Luigi Ceccarini
3. A Landlord’s Notice to Quit: The May 2012 Municipal Elections in Italy 55
James L. Newell
4. Don’t Count Your Chickens before They’re Hatched: The 2013
Italian Parliamentary and Presidential Elections 77
Gianfranco Baldini
5. Beppe Grillo’s First Defeat? The May 2013 Municipal Elections in Italy 103
Piergiorgio Corbetta and Rinaldo Vignati
6. In the Shadow of Grexit: The Greek Election of 17 June 2012 127
Sofia Vasilopoulou and Daphne Halikiopoulou
7. The Rise of Golden Dawn: The New Face of the Far Right in Greece 147
Antonis A. Ellinas
Index 171
vii
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Citation Information
The chapters in this book were originally published in South European Society and Politics,
volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013). When citing this material, please use the original page
numbering for each article, as follows:
Chapter 1
Living Parallel Lives: Italy and Greece in an Age of Austerity
Susannah Verney and Anna Bosco
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 397–426
Chapter 2
Five Stars and a Cricket. Beppe Grillo Shakes Italian Politics
Fabio Bordignon and Luigi Ceccarini
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 427–449
Chapter 3
A Landlord’s Notice to Quit: The May 2012 Municipal Elections in Italy
James L. Newell
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 451–471
Chapter 4
Don’t Count Your Chickens before They’re Hatched: The 2013 Italian Parliamentary and
Presidential Elections
Gianfranco Baldini
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 473–497
Chapter 5
Beppe Grillo’s First Defeat? The May 2013 Municipal Elections in Italy
Piergiorgio Corbetta and Rinaldo Vignati
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 499–521
Chapter 6
In the Shadow of Grexit: The Greek Election of 17 June 2012
Sofia Vasilopoulou and Daphne Halikiopoulou
South European Society and Politics, volume 18, issue 4 (December 2013) pp. 523–542
ix
