GIOVANNA GUIDOROSSI  e MARIA WEBER

Immagine dei partiti e antagonismo politico in Italia, Spagna, Portogallo e Grecia

N. 146

Summary — This article examines the relationship between the images that people have of parties and the political antagonism in four countries of Southern Europe The analysis takes into consideration the role that political parties have played, and presently play, in the process of democratic consolidation of these political systems. The article is divided in two parts: in the former, we provide and discuss the information regarding people's expectations about political parties as well as opinions concerning their political role; in the latter, we present an analysis of the most important cleavages in the electorate of these countries and try to measure some different forms of political antagonism, ranging from distance among the parties to the political polarization.