Jorge M. Fernandes – författare

Marking fifty years since the democratic transitions in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, this book traces how three countries that broke free from authoritarian rule in the mid-1970s have navigated consolidation, crisis, and the enduring tension between structural constraints and political agency to become, and remain, democracies.

Drawing on the latest comparative research, The Makeover of Southern Europe traces the full arc of Southern Europe''s democratic experience: from the turbulent transitions of the mid-1970s, through the consolidation of the 1980s and the modernisation that followed EU membership, to the severe stress tests imposed by the 2008 financial crisis and the more recent rise of populism and far-right politics. Covering institutions, political parties, gender equality, national identity, political trust, and public attitudes towards European integration, the book shows that shared historical origins do not produce identical destinies. Structural conditions set the stage, but it is the choices of political leaders, parties, and citizens that ultimately determine whether democracies endure.

This book will be an important tool for researchers studying Southern European politics and economics. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

Marking fifty years since the democratic transitions in Greece, Portugal, and Spain, this book traces how three countries that broke free from authoritarian rule in the mid-1970s have navigated consolidation, crisis, and the enduring tension between structural constraints and political agency to become, and remain, democracies.

Drawing on the latest comparative research, The Makeover of Southern Europe traces the full arc of Southern Europe''s democratic experience: from the turbulent transitions of the mid-1970s, through the consolidation of the 1980s and the modernisation that followed EU membership, to the severe stress tests imposed by the 2008 financial crisis and the more recent rise of populism and far-right politics. Covering institutions, political parties, gender equality, national identity, political trust, and public attitudes towards European integration, the book shows that shared historical origins do not produce identical destinies. Structural conditions set the stage, but it is the choices of political leaders, parties, and citizens that ultimately determine whether democracies endure.

This book will be an important tool for researchers studying Southern European politics and economics. The chapters were originally published as a special issue of South European Society and Politics.

This comprehensive book analyses the development of the legislatures in the Iberian countries over the past 40 years, since democracy was introduced, to comparatively understand their role in these political systems and in sustaining their democratic systems.

Sharing many historical developments and institutional characteristics, Spain and Portugal also present crucial differences, notably Spain’s pure parliamentary system, a King as Head of State and a quasi-federal structure, and Portugal’s semi-presidential democracy. Starting with a historical and institutional contextualization of these two legislatures, the book examines the most important organizational and behavioural features of legislative life in Iberian legislatures in a comparative perspective. It also shows how new legislatures develop resilience capacity to support lasting democratic systems as fully fledged institutionalized bodies.

This book will be of key interest to scholars and students of Spain and Portugal, legislative politics and parliamentarianism, and more broadly to European politics and comparative politics, journalists and practitioners.