Alternanza di Governo nell’Unione Europea 2008-2015

European politics seems to be in a period of dramatic change. Exasperated by the Great Recession, voters are disillusioned and the political class suffers from a loss of trust, with mainstream political parties losing popularity and party membership. Europe's political crisis of representation also shows itself in the rise of new forms of ‘anti-system politics’, notably the insurgency of new forms of populism and anti-establishment politics. Mainstream political parties are losing votes and the voter turnout is decreasing in several countries. Whilst covering the characteristics of ‘new parties’ and populist parties in Europe, this research investigates the government turnovers in the 28 EU countries, showing that mainstream political parties have been able to resist in power in several cases, through the help of the voting systems’ features and the establishment of grand coalitions.

Lo studio del populismo sta vivendo un periodo di grande fulgore, testimoniato da una copiosa produzione scientifica e da una costante attenzione mediatica. Partiti e movimenti populisti hanno ottenuto significativi successi elettorali in diversi paesi europei e, sebbene in appena tre casi una forza politica di questo tipo si trovi al governo (Ano 2011 in Repubblica Ceca, Syriza in Grecia e Law and Justice in Polonia), la loro affermazione elettorale ha tolto voti sia ai partiti di governo che alle opposizioni.