Over the past 10 years, the European debt crisis has severely limited the room for manoeuvre
of governments in bailout countries, forcing them to choose monetary integration at the
expense of democratic legitimacy and national sovereignty. As a result, satisfaction with
democracy and government support in the European periphery have plummeted rapidly and
have not recovered to their pre-crisis levels yet. Citizens discontent over economic policies
has also caused a strong delegitimization of the political establishment. Exploring a new
avenue of research, TINA seeks to examine if a perceived lack of economic choice can
explain low levels of democratic support and shifting electoral behaviour in the Eurozone
countries. Do citizens feel that they face increasingly meaningless elections that do not lead
to changes in economic policy? This question touches upon the very fundament of
democracy: voters being able to choose between policy alternatives.
The objectives of the TINA project are threefold: (1) to conceptualize economic choice and to
establish a theoretical framework on the relationship between economic choice perceptions,
democratic support, (2) to measure perceived economic choice through a representative
cross-national online survey and survey experiment in different Eurozone countries (bailout
and creditor countries), and (3) to empirically determine the effect of perceived economic
choice on democratic attitudes and electoral behaviour, using the collected survey and
experimental data.
By focusing on how citizens perceive economic policy choice, TINA investigates a novel
concept. To date, existing studies only show differences in attitudes and voting behavior
between pre-crisis and post-crisis times, without investigating which component of
experiencing the Eurocrisis actually causes citizens' dissatisfaction. By developing an
individual-level measure of perceived economic choice, testing this measure across countries,
and by systematically evaluating the impact of economic choice perceptions on citizens
attitudes and behaviour, this project will explore a new concept, and aims to contribute
substantially to the fields of comparative politics, Europeanization and political behaviour.
As such, TINA is the first study to undertake a comprehensive analysis of economic choice
perceptions, which is a key aspect to understand the pressures on modern democracies in
times of cyclical economic crises.
of governments in bailout countries, forcing them to choose monetary integration at the
expense of democratic legitimacy and national sovereignty. As a result, satisfaction with
democracy and government support in the European periphery have plummeted rapidly and
have not recovered to their pre-crisis levels yet. Citizens discontent over economic policies
has also caused a strong delegitimization of the political establishment. Exploring a new
avenue of research, TINA seeks to examine if a perceived lack of economic choice can
explain low levels of democratic support and shifting electoral behaviour in the Eurozone
countries. Do citizens feel that they face increasingly meaningless elections that do not lead
to changes in economic policy? This question touches upon the very fundament of
democracy: voters being able to choose between policy alternatives.
The objectives of the TINA project are threefold: (1) to conceptualize economic choice and to
establish a theoretical framework on the relationship between economic choice perceptions,
democratic support, (2) to measure perceived economic choice through a representative
cross-national online survey and survey experiment in different Eurozone countries (bailout
and creditor countries), and (3) to empirically determine the effect of perceived economic
choice on democratic attitudes and electoral behaviour, using the collected survey and
experimental data.
By focusing on how citizens perceive economic policy choice, TINA investigates a novel
concept. To date, existing studies only show differences in attitudes and voting behavior
between pre-crisis and post-crisis times, without investigating which component of
experiencing the Eurocrisis actually causes citizens' dissatisfaction. By developing an
individual-level measure of perceived economic choice, testing this measure across countries,
and by systematically evaluating the impact of economic choice perceptions on citizens
attitudes and behaviour, this project will explore a new concept, and aims to contribute
substantially to the fields of comparative politics, Europeanization and political behaviour.
As such, TINA is the first study to undertake a comprehensive analysis of economic choice
perceptions, which is a key aspect to understand the pressures on modern democracies in
times of cyclical economic crises.