The quality of democracy in Spain took a great leap backwards in 2012

One of the most worrying aspects of the Eurozone crisis is that it may weaken the quality of democracy in struggling economies. Luis Bouza García outlines the results of a report on the quality of Spanish democracy, based on an expert survey of social scientists. He notes that the figures for 2012 represent the lowest quality of democracy score since the study began in 2008. A number of different factors are likely to have led to this result, including a loss of national autonomy experienced by Spain during the crisis, broken manifesto promises from the ruling government, and the impact of political scandals on trust in Spanish politicians.