Impact of the Economic Crisis on South European Democracies

Leonardo Morlino is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Research Center on Democracies and Democratizations at LUISS Guido Carli, Italy. He was President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) (2009-12). He is the author of more than 30 books and over 200 journal articles and book chapters.Francesco Raniolo is Professor of Political Science and Comparative politics at the University of Calabria, Italy, where he is also Director of the Department of Political and Social Sciences. His main research interests include the political parties, political participation and the quality of democracy, and he has published extensively on these topics.

• 1. Introduction.- 2. How to analyze the impact of economic crisis on democracies.- 3. What innovative destruction? Changes of parties and party systems.- 4. The new protest parties.- 5. New patterns in interests and movements.- 6. Conclusions.