Centre for Analysis of the Radical Right

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Tag: Five Star Movement

The Aftermath of the Constitutional Referendum in Italy: Stability for the Conte Executive, Lega on the decline & Fratelli d’Italia on the rise?

In their latest CARR Insights article, Dr Valerio Alfonso Bruno, Dr James F. Downes and Alessio Scopelliti argue that despite the recent constitutional referendum result in favour of reducing the number of MPs in the Italian Parliament, electoral volatility is likely to continue in Italian politics – with no clear political victory emerging for M5S,… Continue reading “The Aftermath of the Constitutional Referendum in Italy: Stability for the Conte Executive, Lega on the decline & Fratelli d’Italia on the rise?”

Ideological Ambiguity, Issue Blurring & Party Dissent: The Electoral Decline of the Populist Italian Five Star Movement

James F. Downes and Nicola Palma argue that Italian Five Star Movement’s (M5S) future as a governing party is uncertain. Drawing on data from the Chapel Hill Expert Survey (2014, 2017 and 2019 waves), they argue that M5S’s recent electoral decline post–2018 can be explained by a combination of factors, namely: (a) M5S’s ‘ideologically ambiguous’… Continue reading “Ideological Ambiguity, Issue Blurring & Party Dissent: The Electoral Decline of the Populist Italian Five Star Movement”

‘Syncretic’ Populism in Contemporary 21st Century European Politics

What is ‘Syncretism’? ‘Syncretism’, also known as “Catch-all Populism” in the academic literature, is an ambiguous term that has often been applied to political parties that are ideologically centrist and have a loose, flexible ideology. ‘Syncretic’ political parties often have ambiguous ideological stances on the left-right ideological dimension. Compared to other types of party families in… Continue reading “‘Syncretic’ Populism in Contemporary 21st Century European Politics”

Italian Populists Use Social Welfare to Ignite a “War Between the Poor”

Matteo Salvini’s League party takes advantage of the frustration felt by Italians living in poverty to fuel xenophobia and hatred toward immigrants. Since Matteo Salvini took over the leadership of the Northern League party (rebranded as the League before last year’s elections) in late 2013, the focus of his harsh political campaigns shifted from southern… Continue reading “Italian Populists Use Social Welfare to Ignite a “War Between the Poor””

Is the World Undergoing a Deep Populist Transition?

The political momentum and social appeal of the current populist backlash illustrates the persistence of dark collective layers that the postwar transition was meant to have banished. In academia, we seem to have a fondness for the trope of the “wave” and “wave theory.” Samuel Huntington gave us the waves of democratization — a process of… Continue reading “Is the World Undergoing a Deep Populist Transition?”