General strikes have become regular occurrences in Western European countries – between 1980 and 2012, 130 general strikes or strike threats were recorded in 11 countries of the EU15 plus Norway. Organized by labor unions, but mobilizing unionized and non-unionized citizens alike, general strikes target national governments as responsible for unpopular policy reforms, often in the areas of pension and welfare cutbacks, employment regulation, and economic reforms. Recent literature on general strikes in Western Europe suggests that general strikes have been of consequence in several ways. For one, about one-third of all general strikes have resulted in government responses by modifying existing policies or policy proposals in response to these public manifestations of protest. Second, some studies suggest that general strikes also have electoral consequences and punish incumbent governments. Kriesi (2012; 2013), for example, links public protests (which general strikes are part of) more generally and discovers complex links to electoral behavior. Hamann, Johnston, and Kelly (Comparative Politics, forthcoming) analyze data for 15 West European countries and find that while controlling for welfare state expenditure, incumbent governments are penalized at the ballot box in the wake of general strikes. Yet, while existing studies establish correlations between general strikes and electoral outcomes, they do not trace directly whether, and how, voters’ electoral intentions are affected by the occurrence of general strikes.
