Mass Politics in Tough Times

Abstract

Abstract This book reveals how ordinary people in rich democracies responded to the Great Recession. Through cross-national statistical work and detailed case comparison, it surveys how the economic crisis affected elections, public opinion and protest behaviour between 2008 and 2011. It shows that incumbents were generally punished harshly at the polls regardless of whether they were of the left or right, yet it also reveals that citizens reacted to the recession with surprising moderation in other realms of mass politics. Public opinion on redistribution, immigration, extremist parties, and the Euro remained more stable than anticipated and popular mobilizations were, with few exceptions, short-lived. The mobilizations that did occur were overwhelmingly associated with austerity programs and not the recession itself.

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