How did the management of the 2009 financial crisis within the Economic Monetary Union impact the functioning of democracy? What are the political consequences of supranational responsibility trumping national preferences? This book answers these questions by examining the political consequences derived from the management of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis and, in particular, how the decision to implement financial bailouts affected citizens and political parties. This book introduces the concept of 'democracy under strain'. This describes how countries integrated into a union such as the EMU lose control over their policy agenda in the presence of asymmetric economic shocks, which orients member states into two different groups: those facing deteriorating domestic economies and those concerned with financial contagion and the overall stability of the union. Employing various quantitative methods, Rubén Ruiz-Rufino shows how the implementation of financial bailouts in the wake of
