Title:
The Exceptional Case of Post-Bailout Portugal: A Comparative Outlook
Authors:
Elisabetta De Giorgi
Assistant Professor at the Department of Political and Social Sciences (DiSPeS) of the University of Trieste
&
José Santana-Pereira
Assistant Professor at ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute’s Department of Political Science and Public Policy, and Researcher at CIES-Lisbon University Institute
Published:
South European Society and Politics, 3 February 2021
Abstract:
The analysis explores government, party system and political attitudes as dimensions revealing Portugal’s exceptionalism during its post-bailout period (2015–19) vis-á-vis three other South European countries, Greece, Italy and Spain. It shows that government stability was greater in Portugal, no party system revolution took place and political trust recovered more quickly than in the other countries. In contrast, Portugal is not dissimilar from the other cases regarding the prevalence of populist attitudes, even though populist actors did not achieve electoral success before 2019. The article includes an update on political attitudes and government-opposition relations during the covid-19 pandemic and introduces the other articles in this collection.