We discuss a number of issues relating to how the crisis impacts on the citizenry. More specifically, we discuss three main issues which are the focus of the three parts of the book. The first two parts deal with the ways in which citizens reacted to the crisis in two distinct political arenas, namely, the institutional arena and the extra-institutional arena, while the third part examines variations in the ways the crisis was perceived and experienced by different sectors of the population. In addition, after a brief presentation of the empirical basis of the volume, we provide a comparative overview of key indicators of perceptions, experiences, and responses to the economic crisis across the nine countries covered by the book.