ABSTRACT
The article provides a comparative analysis of the 2014 European Parliament elections
across the six countries of Southern Europe by gauging the performance of the second-
order election model. Both the aggregate hypotheses of this model and evidence of micro-
level foundations are analysed. The findings reveal that the political and electoral
consequences of the economic crisis have not drastically challenged the second-order
character of these elections in Southern Europe. However, electoral behaviour also exhibits
some indications of a more critical contest.
