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Economic interventions, economic perceptions and political support during the Eurozone crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 December 2021

Daniel Devine*
Affiliation:
St Hilda's College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Stuart J. Turnbull-Dugarte
Affiliation:
Department of Politics and International Relations, University of Southampton, London, UK
*
*Corresponding author. Email: Daniel.devine@st-hildas.ox.ac.uk

Abstract

What is the effect of external economic intervention on political support and economic evaluations? We argue that economic interventions systematically worsen support for governing institutions and much of this is mediated through updating economic perceptions, at least during the Eurozone crisis. We evidence this with two analyses. First, we provide the first quasi-experimental evidence to show that intervention worsened both political support and economic evaluations. Second, we conduct a mediation analysis using Eurobarometer data to quantify how much of the effect of intervention is mediated by economic evaluations. This has broader implications for understanding how citizens react to international integration, international cues, and the process of forming judgements of political support.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Political Science Association

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