It Is Not Just the Economy: How Established Political Elites Understand the (political) Crisis and Its Effects

One of the legacies of the crisis has been its impact on the political arena. To a greater extent than in recent economic depressions, the current economic crisis has been accompanied by a profound political crisis. Previous political disaffection trends have been exacerbated to unusual (and worrying) levels. The representative link on which modern democracies are based is eroded opening the widow for new different sociopolitical movements to enter politics. The goal of this paper is to find out the narratives of established political elites (members of parliaments) explaining how the crisis has affected their relationship with citizens and the alternative scenarios they envision to rebuild the representative link.

Authors: Xavier Coller (Universidad Pablo de Olavide), Manuel Jiménez (Universidad Pablo de Olavide), Manuel Portillo (Universidad Pablo de Olavide), Amparo Novo (Universidad de Oviedo).