PARTY SYSTEMS, PARTY-SOCIETY LINKAGES, AND CONTENTIOUS ACTS: CYPRUS IN A COMPARATIVE, SOUTHERN EUROPEAN PERSPECTIVE*

Abstract

Southern European countries are currently experiencing a dramatic economic slump and fully fledged austerity measures. Accordingly, the standard of living of the majority of southern European populaces has fallen significantly. Nevertheless, the dynamics of social contention in the form of strikes and demonstrations that accompany these experiences remain understudied. Why, in certain southern European countries, has collective upset arising from economic deprivation translated into frequent and large-scale contentious acts, while in others it has not? Drawing on the case of Cyprus from a comparative, southern European perspective, we seek to explain how relations within the party system, as well as between parties and civil society, can create the conditions that obstruct open social conflict. The intensity and nature of party-society linkages with causal roots in a country's history can be a sufficient condition for the relative absence of protest.