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La Lega di Salvini. Estrema destra di governo

Da tempo la Lega ha scelto di posizionarsi nell’area dell’estrema destra: una virata che ha consentito al partito di legittimarsi come forza trainante della coalizione conservatrice, tanto da stravolgerne l’assetto indebolendo l’area moderata.

Nello scenario emerso con il voto del 2018 la Lega compete con l’altra formazione anti-establishment, il Movimento 5 Stelle, nel tentativo di monopolizzare il disagio economico e il disorientamento elettorale e di ricomporre, sul piano socio-territoriale, le istanze di cambiamento avanzate dagli elettori. Uno scenario inedito in cui due frères-ennemis si disputano l’egemonia politica e culturale in Italia.

LEGGI il LIBRO (dal 20 settembre in libreria)

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The Presidentialisation in the Western Balkans

My latest book has just been published (Palgrave)

This book examines the process of presidentialisation of political parties in the Western Balkans. The Western Balkan countries deserve to be analysed in a comparative perspective due to their distinctive features in terms of processes of democratization, forms of government and institutional assets, the presence of social cleavages (religious, linguistic, ethnic), and, of course, the nature of political parties which differs from other European cases, especially in terms of origins, organization and structure. However, Western Balkan political parties do show certain similarities with other West European cases where power is centralised and held by the parties’ leadership. The book ultimately attempts to test whether and to what extent the influence of institutional variables affects the level of presidentialisation of political parties, also considering the parties’ organization features.

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The meanings of party membership

published in Contemporary Italian Politics

crowdFor many years after World War Two, the mass party model dominated Italian politics. High rates of membership and activism were considered to be essential for optimising electoral performance, for optimising organisational resources, and for the legitimacy of the party itself.

However, since the 1970s, and in particular since 1989, party-membership linkages have begun to weaken. Taking its point of departure from the recent literature, this article offers a theoretical framework for the examination of three different meanings of membership, associated with changing models of party organisation. Data from national election surveys, and from qualitative research on party activists, support the proposed theoretical framework. The article focuses on three Italian parties – the Democratic Party, the Northern League and the Five-star Movement – discussing the similarities and differences, with implications for cross-national comparative studies.

Here the full article