A study of party competition in Europe since 2008 aids understanding of the recent, often dramatic, changes taking place in European politics.

Part I. Theoretical Framework and Context: 1. Crises and the transformation of the national political space in Europe Hanspeter Kriesi and Swen Hutter; 2. Economic and political crises: the context of critical elections Hanspeter Kriesi and Swen Hutter; 3. The media content analysis and cross-validation Swen Hutter and Theresa Gessler; Part II. Country Studies: 4. Spain - out with the old: the restructuring of Spanish politics Guillem Vidal and Irene Sánchez-Vítores; 5. Greece - punctuated equilibrium: the restructuring of Greek politics Argyrios Altiparmakis; 6. Italy - the end of bipolarism: restructuration in an unstable party system Johannes Karremans, Giorgio Malet and Davide Morisi; 7. Portugal - a tale of apparent stability and surreptitious transformation Frederico Ferreira da Silva and Mariana S. Mendes; 8. Hungary - a Hungarian crisis or just a crisis in Hungary? Theresa Gessler and Anna Kyriazi; 9. Poland - 'modern' versus 'normal': the increasing importance of the cultural divide Paulina Salek and Agnieszka Sztajdel; 10. Romania - polity contestation and the resilience of mainstream parties Endre Borbáth; 11. Latvia - an ever-wider gap: the ethnic divide in Latvian party politics Edgars Eihmanis; 12. Austria, France, the Netherlands and Switzerland: old and new winning formulas of the populist radical right Jasmine Lorenzini and Mathilde van Ditmars; 13. Restructuring British and German party politics in times of crisis Björn Bremer and Julia Schulte-Cloos; 14. Ireland - limited restructuration in the poster child of austerity Swen Hutter and Giorgio Malet; Part III. Conclusions: 15. Diverging Europe: the political consequences of the crises in a comparative perspective Swen Hutter, Argyrios Altiparmakis and Guillem Vidal; 16. Conclusion: a critical juncture for the structuration of party systems? Hanspeter Kriesi.