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Journal ArticleDOI

Five Stars and a Cricket. Beppe Grillo Shakes Italian Politics

Fabio Bordignon, +1 more
- 01 Dec 2013 - 
- Vol. 18, Iss: 4, pp 427-449
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TLDR
The Five Star Movement as discussed by the authors is a new political player that combines an online and an offline presence, but a top-down decision-making process; it is positioned beyond ideologies, while its electorate comes from various political families.
Abstract
The article focuses on a new political player: the Five Star Movement led by the comedian Beppe Grillo. The party lies at the junction between different organisational models and conceptions of democracy: it combines an online and an offline presence; it has ‘horizontal’ structural elements, but a top-down decision-making process; it is positioned ‘beyond’ ideologies, while its electorate comes from various political families. The work considers the history, message, leader, organisation and electoral base of the movement, as well as the political opportunity structure that facilitated its growth in 2012 and the challenges it faces in the delicate phase of institutionalisation.

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Political expression and action on social media: Exploring the relationship between lower- and higher-threshold political activities among Twitter users in Italy

TL;DR: It is demonstrated that the more respondents acquire political information via social media and express themselves politically on these platforms, the more they are likely to contact politicians via e-mail, campaign for parties and candidates using social media, and attend offline events to which they were invited online.
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Define the populist political communication style: the case of Italian political leaders on Twitter

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors propose an empirical definition of political communication style with the aim of identifying characteristics of the populist political communication styles, which are characterized by the presence of populist ideology fragments and traits, but were not strictly related to the leade
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‘Mild Mannered’? Protest and Mobilisation in Portugal under Austerity, 2010–2013

TL;DR: In this article, the authors map the cycle of anti-austerity contention between 2010 and 2013 to reveal a more complex picture, where traditional actors, including labour unions and left-wing political parties, emerge as key actors, facilitating and sustaining the discontinuous mobilisation of new forms of activism, while seeking to gain access to new constituency through them.
Journal ArticleDOI

Beyond left and right: the eclectic populism of the Five Star Movement

TL;DR: The Five Star Movement (FSM) has been one of the most electorally successful European populist parties since 2013 and has been classified as a "populist" party as discussed by the authors.
References
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Book

The principles of representative government

TL;DR: In this article, Manin argues that representative government should be understood as a combination of democratic and undemocratic, aristocratic elements, in which citizens elect representatives only because they cannot assemble and govern in person.
Book

Information and American Democracy: Technology in the Evolution of Political Power

TL;DR: The authors assesses the consequences of new information technologies for American democracy in a way that is theoretical and also historically grounded, arguing that new technologies have produced the fourth in a series of information revolutions in the US, stretching back to the founding.
Book

The Life and Death of Democracy

John Keane
TL;DR: Keane's The Life and Death of Democracy as discussed by the authors explores the origins and evolution of democracy in ancient Greece and explains why democracy is still potentially the best form of government on earth and why democracies everywhere are sleepwalking their way into deep trouble.
Book

Democracies and the Populist Challenge

Yves Mény, +1 more
TL;DR: Meny and Surel as discussed by the authors made sense of Populism taking politics to the people, as the ideology of democracy, and compared national and international cases of popular dissatisfaction with democracy.
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