Generazioni politiche nelle nuove democrazie del Sud Europa

Political Generations in the New Democracies of Southern Europe

Abstract disponibile solo in lingua inglese

The paper examines the political orientations of different political generations in three new democracies of Southern Europe: Greece, Spain and Portugal. A political generation is here defined as an age-cohort which has been exposed to common socialization, in connection with the fall of the authoritarian regimes and the transition to democracies in the three countries. Discontinuities among the political cultures of the age-cohorts socialized to politics during or after the transition to democracy and the older age-cohorts could be considered a test of the new political order, despite the tendencies in political attitudes to be transmitted from generation to generation.
From this point of view, Spain seems to be a "success story": the younger generation show higher support for democracy, even if not higher levels of political involvement. Greece is a case of re-democratization, and exhibits high continuity in diffuse support for democratic structures, but the younger generation are higher in specific support and political efficacy. Portugal appears to be a much less successful case of regime legitimation, albeit gaining the political support of the new generation of citizens after regime transition.