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Introduction: European politics nowadays ] 23 interrelated social trends from family change, with a growing proportion of single-person households, to a higher level of education. In any case, in terms of political conseguences, it leads to increasingly independent-minded citizens and voters at the individual level, and to decreasing party/political identification, falling party membership and loyalty, evaporating political activism, dropping electoral turnout, and rising electoral volatility at the collective level. This way, it feeds into the conclusion that today’s European politics are characterised more by a dealignment than a realignment of citizens, who tend to turn away, or even against, politics, or simply get politically confused and disoriented. c. Political arenas Confusion and disorientation nurture frustration and anger, leading to antipolitics feelings with calls for technocratic solutions on the policy side, and anti-elite and anti-systemic populism on the politics side. This trend of the depoliticisation of politics, another symptom of a troubled European public sphere, can be well illustrated through the transformation of political parties. I focus on them for three main reasons: first, because this is a book about society and politics, and political parties remain the main conveyors of interests and value choices from the societal to the political realm; second, because they remain essential components of democratic political systems - even if opinion polls regularly place them as the least trusted political institutions in contemporary European polities; and finally, because political parties are core actors at elections, in parliaments, and in governments, where turbulences can often be traced back to them or explained along similar patterns they are confronted with. The fact that mainstream political parties are facing increasing challenges across Europe has become a commonplace in contemporary political science. This is often attributed to two parallel reasons. One is the transformation of political parties themselves. Typical mass parties in the late 19" and the early 20" century were not only political organisations but all-encompassing social networks, which provided a broad spectrum of services - from social security through cultural events to leisure and sport activities - to their members in order to encapsulate their constituency and voters. However, the profound change in political strategies in the second part of the 20" century, combined with waning social cleavages, converted mainstream parties into catch-all electoral machines, which turned their focus from constituency representation to vote maximisation. If you wish to obtain as many votes as possible with the aim of forming a government, you may not want to alienate any large group of voters. Of course, the price you pay for watered-down positions and messages is a weakening party identity and dropping party membership. Citizens will start feeling and saying that
