Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

No Light At The End Of The Tunnel: Ideological And Systematic Causes Of Spain's Economic Paralysis, Taylor S. Shippen

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Since 2008, Spain’s economy has suffered from an unemployment crisis. In response, voters elevated the Partido Popular (PP) to power in 2011 after becoming frustrated with the Partido Socialista Obrero Español’s (PSOE) lack of effective action. However, since the election of 2011, very little has changed in Spain’s stagnant economy. Unemployment remains high despite initially promising reforms in Spain’s labor market and a bailout for Spain’s larger banks in 2012 has done little to bring foreign investment back into the country. In this paper, I contend that the PP’s timid response to the unemployment crisis is the result of a …