ABSTRACT
This chaper lays out the background to the austerity cycle of contention by reconstructing the dynamics of mobilisation in Portugal and Spain from the transition to democracy in the 1970s to the austerity years. It identifies continuities and ruptures from the pre-crisis to the austerity period. It shows that the political dynamics that came to define the anti-austerity cycle of protest were established in the early 2000s. Rather than spontaneous reactions to political and economic crises, many of the features identified were previously present and shaped the configuration of discourses and players throughout the austerity years.
