Andrea Ceron
Analysing posts on Facebook and Twitter-X, Andrea Ceron, Silvia Decadri, and Fedra Negri highlight how Italian politicians use populist rhetoric to generate engagement. They find that such rhetoric does indeed increase the likelihood of posts going viral, even among non-populist voters Read more
Valerio Alfonso Bruno
Russia’s war on Ukraine has split the Italian centre-left opposition between pacifists and those arguing in favour of arming Ukraine. Disunity on how to respond to the crisis, write Valerio Alfonso Bruno, James F. Downes and Alessio Scopelliti, will likely weaken these parties and strengthen Meloni's right-wing coalition Read more
Giovanni Capoccia
The Italian general election produced a clear majority for the right-wing coalition headed by the Brothers of Italy, following a significant shift of votes within the coalition. The parties of the centre-left failed to forge an electoral alliance to stop the right. The political landscape remains volatile, says Giovanni Capoccia Read more
Martin Bull
The resignation on 21 July 2022 of Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, was a classic example of the machinations of Italian politics, argues Martin Bull. The outcome of a manufactured crisis and a manipulation of events by the parties of the right, Draghi’s fall was neither inevitable nor expected Read more
Fred Paxton
Italian populists’ focus on ‘the will of the people’ has frequently contradicted their ideological priorities towards migration, Fred Paxton and Andrea Pettrachin find. The perception of local attitudes to immigration and issue salience are the determining factors in how populists in local government make their decisions Read more
Andrea Capati
The Italian Five Star Movement is considering joining the ‘Socialists and Democrats’ grouping in the European Parliament. Andrea Capati and Marco Improta argue that this pro-Europeanist turn owes much to the party’s recent experience in government. It also marks a further stage in the ‘normalisation’ of the Five Star Movement Read more
Damian Raess
Surprisingly, left governments adopted more conservative fiscal policies than right governments in recent economic crises. Governments did not choose these policies freely; rather, the financial markets imposed them. Nonetheless, argues Damian Raess, they appear to have dire electoral consequences: left-leaning voters are increasingly voting with their feet Read more
Michelangelo Vercesi
Italy is unmatched in Western Europe in the scale of its electoral support for populists. Michelangelo Vercesi argues that this exceptionality, combined with the strategic adaptation of political entrepreneurs to different territorial political traditions, is a legacy of how the unitary state formed Read more
The Loop
Cutting-edge analysis showcasing the work of the political science discipline at its best.
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