Category: Eurozone Crisis

• Portuguese Labour Market Reforms in the Aftermath of the Eurozone Crisis: The Problems Behind the Recovery

  This is a extended repost of a blog written with Jasper Simons for Critcom, the blog of the Council of European Studies. If one were to believe the assessments of European institutions, Portugal is on the path to recover from the severe economic crisis it suffered from 2010 onwards, and the drastic reforms implemented in…

  alexandre afonso

  May 19, 2016

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis, Portugal, Uncategorized, Welfare

  Austerity, European Union, labour, Portugal, Welfare

• Reforming Southern Europe: How to Square the Triangle of Employment, Fiscal Austerity and Inequality?

  Mass unemployment is probably one of the most worrying features of the Eurozone crisis. As youth unemployment is hitting record levels (one in four people under 25 in Europe and more than one in two in Spain are officially out of work), many observers are warning against the rise of a “lost generation”, especially in…

  alexandre afonso

  December 17, 2013

  Austerity, Corporatism, Eurozone Crisis, Welfare

  employment, equality, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Welfare

• The Political Consequences of Austerity in Southern Europe

  So I have written a blog post (both in Spanish on El Diario’s Agenda Publica and in English on the LSE’s Europp blog) that seeks to explain why the Portuguese party system has stayed relatively stable in the face of austerity policies while the Greek party system has exploded. The main arguments were 1)   that…

  alexandre afonso

  July 31, 2013

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis

  Beppe Grillo, Greece, Greek, Italy, Panhellenic Socialist Movement, Portugal, Southern Europe

• How Austerity Killed Greek Parties, While Portuguese Parties Survived

  This shows the electoral score of the two mainstream parties in Greece and Portugal in 2009 (before the outbreak of the crisis) and in 2011 (in Portugal) and 2012 (in Greece), after the outbreak of the crisis. For Greece, this shows the results of the May elections; new elections were held in June as no…

  alexandre afonso

  July 5, 2013

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis

  Austerity, clientelism, elections, Greece, Greek, New Democracy, Panhellenic Socialist Movement, party politics, Portugal, Syriza

• How big is the Greek public sector, really?

  In the media you always read about the Greek “bloated and corrupt” public sector full of useless slags.  Now I have been unable to find actual data that can back up this claim. OECD data (picture above) indicate on the contrary that the Greek public sector is actually much smaller than elsewhere. 1) Are the…

  alexandre afonso

  July 4, 2013

  Eurozone Crisis

  Greece, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Public sector

• The Size of Austerity

  The data come from Andrew Watt’s and Sotiria Theodoropoulou’s ETUI report, (p. 14) based on a survey of country experts. Some data, from Italy and Spain most notably, are missing. This is partly based on 2011 estimates, and as we know forecasts have been all but reliable. There is more data on this on the…

  alexandre afonso

  July 4, 2013

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis

  Austerity, Germany, Portugal

• Portugal’s Political Crisis, or the Ordeal of Junior Coalition Partners

  On Monday, the Portuguese Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar resigned. Gaspar was the main architect of  Portugal’s austerity drive since its bailout two years ago. His political charisma was akin to a flat bike tyre, but he was considered a major guarantee of credibility for the Troika and Portugal’s creditors. Apparently, he had already asked to…

  alexandre afonso

  July 3, 2013

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis, Welfare

  CDS-PP, coalitions, Democratic and Social Centre – People’s Party, Geert Wilders, Paulo Portas, Pedro Passos Coelho, populist-radical right parties, Portugal, PSD, Vitor Gaspar

• L’austérité au Portugal: de la dictature de Salazar au diktat de la Troika

  Même s’il  a été l’un des pays les plus touchés par la crise de la zone euro, le Portugal n’a pas fait beaucoup de vagues malgré une situation économique catastrophique. Au contraire, le gouvernement de Pedro Passos Coelho arrivé au pouvoir en 2011 a été un bon élève de la Troika, et a diligemment mis…

  alexandre afonso

  June 21, 2013

  Austerity, Eurozone Crisis

  Austerity, International Monetary Fund, Portugal, Troika