South European Society and Politics has just published a special issue on Elections in Hard Times: Southern Europe, 2010-11.

The special issue addresses the political consequences of economic crisis in Southern Europe, the region at the heart of the European sovereign debt crisis and in the vanguard of the programmes of radical economic austerity implemented to confront it. It offers case studies of 12 votes (legislative, presidential and sub-national elections and a national-level referendum) across the South European region during the first two years of the crisis. The picture which emerges is one of the overthrow of incumbent governments, the breaking down of established political affiliations and the emergence of new political actors, primarily anti-politics, far right and racist parties.

The issue opens with an overview article - Electoral Epidemic: The Political Cost of Economic Crisis in Southern Europe, 2010–11 - by Anna Bosco and Susannah Verney, presenting the electoral trends which emerged across the region as a whole during the two years 2010-11. The article can be downloaded free of charge from SESP webpage http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/fses20/current