Introduction – Financial Crisis, Austerity, and Electoral Politics

We are pleased to present this issue of JEPOP which is a special issue on the topic of how the financial crisis in Europe has changed the electoral politics of some of the most deeply affected countries. We are delighted to welcome on board Pedro C. Magalhães as guest co-editor for this issue. Pedro is principal researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and one of the coordinators of the Portuguese Election Study. Pedro is not only the author of one of the articles in this issue but has been instrumental in recruiting the other authors whose work is included, and who originally delivered early versions of these articles at a conference organised by the Department of Government and the BMW Center for German and European Studies of Georgetown University. All articles in this issue have been through JEPOP’s rigorous reviewing process and we would like to thank our two referees, Professor Jack Vowles and Professor Sara Hobolt (who waive their anonymity). Ed Fieldhouse, Mark Franklin and Rachel Gibson