Democracy, New Media and Anti-­‐Establishment Party Politics in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis: Especial Consideration of the Spanish Case

Diaz Romero, Leocadia (2015) Democracy, New Media and Anti-­‐Establishment Party Politics in the aftermath of the Financial Crisis: Especial Consideration of the Spanish Case. [Conference Proceedings] (Submitted)

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Abstract

Introduction: Scholars have widely studied citizen disenchantment and disaffection with politics and democratic institutions (Schmitter and Trechsel 2004: 26-27; Kaase and Newton 1995; Nye, Zelikov and King 1997; Norris, 1999), which have intensified with the economic crisis since 2008. Certainly, the financial crisis has had a major effect on political disaffection of the Spanish people and, in general, on their loss of trust in representative institutions. The crisis in Spain presented particular specificities: the real state bubble added to the US credit crunch effects. Carlos Taibo complements this general picture with the “indignation” of Spanish citizens resulting from the spread of corruption among all political parties and, thus, the rejection of the political class; from the measures taken by the government to bail out banks and corporations with public funds; from labor laws facilitating dismissal, from cuts in social services (education, health care), etc. (Taibo, 2011). Some figures can be explanatory at this respect: one out of five Spaniards –and half the youngsters- were unemployed, 11 million people were at the poverty limit, evictions occurred daily and people killed themselves in desperation and frustration. On the whole, the protests started in relation to the economic crisis. However, the claims became also political concerning issues such as social justice, participation, transparency and proportionality. 15 May and Occupy movements have been perceived as a response to a crisis of representative democracy (Razsa, 2012).

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