Contemporary Italian Politics 

About: Contemporary Italian Politics is an academic journal published by Routledge. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Politics & Government. It has an ISSN identifier of 2324-8823. Over the lifetime, 355 publications have been published receiving 2237 citations.

The ‘refugee crisis’ in Italy as a crisis of legitimacy

Abstract: The so-called ‘refugee crisis’ marks a crucial juncture in Italian politics. Tapping into the crisis of legitimacy of contemporary European politics, the controversy over migration has triggered di...

‘Techno-populism’ as a new party family: the case of the Five Star Movement and Podemos

Abstract: Democratic politics in Southern Europe have been shaken by the emergence of the Five Star Movement (M5S) in Italy and Podemos in Spain. Initially dismissed as protest movements, both point to broad...

The Italian elections of February 2013: the end of the Second Republic?

Abstract: The recent Italian elections ended in gridlock, contrary to what most observers expected. The left won in the Chamber but not in the Senate. To make things worse, the result in the Senate made it impossible to form a majority coalition between Bersani’s left and Monti’s centre, which many considered the most likely outcome of these elections. This left the Democratic Party, the winner in the Chamber, with the unpalatable option of having to form a cabinet seeking the support of either the Five-star Movement or Berlusconi. Eventually the latter option prevailed with the formation of the Letta cabinet. There are a number of factors behind this unexpected result. The success of the Five-star Movement is one. Surprisingly it has become the largest party in the country, attracting votes from across the political spectrum and from all sectors of society. The weakness of the Democratic Party coalition is another. It missed the goal of extending its electoral base at a time when the right lost almost eight millio...

Italy: the promised land of populism?

Abstract: Since the 1990s, Italy has been considered by many social scientists as a fertile testing ground for populism, or even as a populist ‘paradise’. Understanding the underlying causes of the populist upsurge that characterised politics after the party-system transformation that came in the wake of the Tangentopoli scandal requires a long-term perspective in order to identify both the structural factors facilitating populism’s sudden growth, and the behaviour of those political actors responsible for the spread of populist arguments and communication styles. The article aims to develop this analysis by illustrating the different embodiments of the populist mentality within the Italian political system since the re-establishment of democracy in the aftermath of World War II.

The five stars continue to shine: the consolidation of Grillo’s ‘movement party’ in Italy

Abstract: Despite the predictions of observers and opponents, the Five-star Movement continues to hold centre stage in Italian politics. The article retraces the phases of the Movement’s development and consolidation from the point of view of its electoral performance, its internal organisation and the socio-demographic and ideological profiles of its voters, concentrating on the most recent period. In particular, it focuses on the difficulties that emerged in the wake of the European elections of 2014. The consequent birth of the so-called Five-star Directorate and the new direction of change internally and externally confirm that the study of this ‘movement party’ has relevance beyond the Italian case and throws light on the crisis of contemporary representative democracies.