This panel focuses on conditions of sustainability, structures and processes of democracy in South European countries in the sovereign debt crisis. This involves the relationship between international financial institutions, supranational institutions and domestic governments, coupled with changes induced in domestic democratic processes. In Portugal, Greece and Spain formal agreements establishing conditionality have been signed, involving the IMF as well as the EU. Parliaments (either member state parliaments or the European Parliament) are not involved in such process, but domestic parliaments have to approve of the measures stemming from the agreements, recommended and often defined behind close doors during the country visits of the representatives of the institutions involved. In Italy, the ECB and the European Commission pushed the Berlusconi government to take specific actions in various economic and social policy fields. Commitments taken at that stage were then implemented by the Monti government under a series of decree laws or through votes of confidence, while preliminary evidence would hint at an active role of international organizations, including the OECD, in promoting specific policy choices (for instance, in employment regulation). The panel will address these issues from the vantage point of the analysis of the politics and policymaking of policy reforms in Spain, Italy and Greece, with the aim of investigating the consequences of managing the crisis for democratic politics.