The effects of the Great Recession have been unevenly distributed across European regions. While some promptly reacted to the shock, others were not able to restore their growth path. Such dynamics contributed in generating feelings of discontent across Europe, particularly in those places that experienced a stronger decline. This resentment toward institutions and traditional parties is now shaping a new political geography, being the expression of people¿s attitude in the territories.
In this article, we contribute to the understanding of the drivers behind the increasing support for populist parties. We assess whether different degrees of economic resilience to the economic and financial crisis played a role in shaping the voting behavior. To carry out our analysis, we use a novel dataset on voting behaviour at NUTS-2 level covering the whole EU-28 over the period 2000-2018. Through the understanding of the different reactions to the crisis, we clarify the determinants of populist support, and deliver important insights to shape effective policy responses.
Contribution of the project:
Bridge between the two strands of literature, linking the concept of resilience with the growth of political discontent.
The potential results of the project could give innovative information about the role of certain variables in the political context, and contribute to the literature discussion on regional studies. This project, moreover, could be expanded in a case study and brought to the urban scale, analysing different measures of discontent and what might determine the voting attitudes.