The calm before the storm: explaining the institutionalization of Southern European party systems before the great recession

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article looks at the development of Southern European party systems between the moment of their independence (Malta and Cyprus) and democratisation (Portugal, Greece and Spain) and before the beginning of 2012, at the highest point of the global financial and economic crisis. In particular, it constitutes the first attempt since Morlino's path-breaking study, published 20 years ago, to try to understand why some Southern European party systems institutionalised. Departing from Casal Bértoa's [2012. Parties, regime and cleavages: Explaining party system institutionalization in East Central Europe. East European Politics, 28(4), 452–472] work on the sources of party system institutionalisation in East Central Europe, the current article examines, looking at four different periods (i.e. infancy, Cold War, twentieth century and economic crisis), the causes of institutionalisation in five Southern European party systems across time. The most important finding is that the sources explaining variation in the level of institutionalisation of young party systems are the same no matter the time (one, two, three decades) or space (post-communist or post-authoritarian Europe) taken into consideration. Thus, party systems characterised by electoral disproportionality, legislative concentration, cleavage cumulation and, to a lesser extent, parliamentarism as well as institutionalised political parties score significantly higher in terms of institutionalisation than more fractionalized, proportional, organisationally less rooted, semi-presidential, and socio-politically cross-cut party systems.