The Price of Democracy: The 1970s Economic Crisis and its Impact on the Southern European Democratic Transitions (1968-1985)core
PRIDE · Horizon Europe grant · 2027-09-01–2029-08-31
EC contribution
Total cost
Beneficiaries
About the data
Source: CORDIS (official EU open data), Horizon Europe. Framework HORIZON · call HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF · scheme HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF · topic HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF-01-01. CORDIS record →
Objective
Globalisation has put democracy to the test. Two decades of stagnation, populism, COVID-19 and economic warfare have revealed deep tensions between open markets and democratic governance—and scholars have responded. Political scientists have linked globalisation to rising inequality in high-income countries. Historians have traced how the 1970s economic crisis drove global economic convergence and laid the foundations for today’s socio-economic order.Surprisingly, Southern Europe is largely absent from this debate on globalisation, democracy and the 1970s economic crisis. Yet it offers a vital case. The Eurozone crisis has shown the vulnerability of Greece, Portugal and Spain to capital markets and the destabilising effects on their societies and European integration. Nor were the 1970s a turning point just globally: this was also the period when these countries democratised. One key question thus remains: how did Southern Europe’s path to democracy, amid early globalisation, shape its economic foundations? The answer has been elusive due to a lack of comparative studies rooted in interdisciplinary research.Until now. Building on the complementary strengths of the Experienced Researcher, Supervisor and hosting institution, The Price of Democracy (PRIDE) explores the 1970s economic crisis and its impact on democratisation in Greece, Portugal and Spain (1968–1985). It tests a core hypothesis: that the crisis hastened the fall of the dictatorships and led the new democracies toward deregulation, fiscal austerity, and external debt reliance, thus helping to set the stage for the Eurozone crisis. Fusing history and political economy, and based on research across 8 countries, PRIDE offers the first study of the transitions through the lens of globalisation. It sheds unprecedented light on Southern Europe’s history, creates open data for wider use, and equips policymakers and the public with lessons on interdependence, crisis-driven reform and its long-term effects.
Beneficiaries (1)
| Organisation | Country | Role | EC contribution | SME |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FONDATION NATIONALE DES SCIENCES POLITIQUES | FR | coordinator | €226,421 |
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