Strategies for strengthening democracy require an understanding of the challenges it currently faces. Southern Europe potentially offers promising material for such an investigation. Fifty years ago South European countries were in the vanguard of the ‘Third Wave of Democratisation’. However, over the last decade and a half the region has found itself in the frontline of successive European crises, allowing South European societies little respite between the consecutive shocks. To what extent have these testing experiences nourished citizens’ dissatisfaction with the functioning of democracy at the national level? Do citizens feel their voice is heard in their national systems? Has there been a restoration of public faith in political institutions since the nadir point of the Great Recession? Or has democratic discontent been cumulative, increasing rather than decreasing with the passage of time and developing into an entrenched feature of South European political systems? How much cause for concern is there about the democratic health of Southern Europe today?
These questions are investigated using Eurobarometer data. The paper examines public opinion in five South European countries – Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Cyprus – comparing them with each other and with the EU average. The paper shows how citizens’ satisfaction with national democracy has evolved over recent years, while providing a strong focus on the current state of play.
