An election propelled by academia? Blurring the lines between political science and politics in Spain

The Spanish general election has proven to be fertile ground for interactions between politics and academia. Tena Prelec and Stuart Brown single out two phenomena that have developed in Spain over recent years: the progressive engagement of precariously-paid junior scholars in politics, and a thriving community of young academic commentators which supplements, and in some cases supplants, the work of the mainstream media. They note that the contribution of both groups has already improved the nature of the public debate in Spain, but ask whether this blurring of the lines between politics and academia may prove problematic in the long run.