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Europe's Political Earthquakes Of 1992
| Article
# : |
20274 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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| Issue
Date : |
7 / 1992 |
2,230 Words |
| Author
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Maria Alongi And Ingrid Tersman
Maria Alongi and Ingrid Tersman are analysts of European
politics at the Center for Strategic and International
Studies
in Washington, D.C. |
The spring of 1992 was an eventful time for Western Europe. In what amounted to a political earthquake, electorates in the major European countries--France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom--returned votes of no confidence in their leaders, voting a governing coalition out of office in Italy, barely reelecting the Conservatives in Britain, and upsetting the regional lead of the governing parties in France and Germany.
Political commentators and analysts on this side of the Atlantic attempted to explain the dramatic results of these European elections. Some saw in the voters' choices a rejection of the socialist ideal; others saw instead an ominous rise of extreme right-wing politics. What happened in Western Europe, however, is much more complex than this and can best be understood as the result of domestic politics, as well as two major developments on the European continent: the drive toward political, economic, and monetary integration in the West and the disintegration of the post-World War II political and economic system in the East.
ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL
The anti-incumbent votes cast in Italy and Great Britain this past April prove that, in the end, all politics are local. Italy experienced a blow to the old order on April 5 and 6, as the results of its general elections rolled in. The major Italian political parties--the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, and the Communists--all saw their electoral base eroded in favor of a collection of newcomers and a few old stalwarts who previously had only minor roles in government.
The magnitude of the change in Italian politics is perhaps most evident in one statistic: For the first time since the establishment of the Italian republic after World War II, the Christian Democratic Party, which has held most of the political power for the past 46 years, earned less than 30 percent of the total vote in a national election.
Part of the reason for this dramatic change in Italian politics lies in the public's frustration with a political system that fosters compromise among the largest parties and often leads to paralysis. The four-party coalition of Christian Democrats, Socialists, Social Democrats, and Liberals that has governed Italy during most of the past decade has been unable to bring under control a staggering public deficit and a relatively high rate of inflation--problems that loom large in anticipation of the European Community's monetary union. The increasing strength
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