The paper takes an innovative approach to the study of political participation by combining it with a gender studies perspective, investigating the role of structural and situational constraints in the highly gendered context of Italy. Such constraints channel women's time away from politics, but neither do they account for the whole difference, which calls for an additional explanation, identified with specific cultural constraints. As expected, there is a remarkable gap between women and men in traditional time-consuming political activities and situational constraints have a negative impact on women's participation, and surprisingly also have a negative effect on men's involvement.
This article deals with voter turnout and the economic crisis, and focuses on the results of the 2013 parliamentary elections in Italy. A consolidated tradition of studies has attested to the impact of a negative economic cycle, unemployment and various issues related to the economy, on the decision whether or not to vote, although the results remain controversial. Some scholars have asserted that, during a period of crisis, voters 10 react positively, using their collective voice to demand more attention to their interests. Others argue that negative circumstances distance citizens from the electoral arena bringing a higher rate of abstention as a consequence. The peculiarity of the political situation in the period leading up to the 2013 election in Italy (the unexpected end of Berlusconi’s government in 2011, the period of transition under Monti’s technocratic 15 government and the rise of the Five Star Movement [MoVimento Cinque Stelle, M5S] as a new competitor) strongly influenced voters’ evaluations of how political parties were going to compete and whether, or for whom, they would vote. Survey results show that discontented voters largely used abstention as a strategy to express their resentment, but that the most politically engaged preferred to choose a radical party 20 (M5S), rather than refusing to vote
The success of the Italian party Five Star Movement (M5S) has been broadly attributed to its ability to occupy the space of radical protest against “old politics”. Due to the party’s criticism, its charismatic leadership, and its aggressive electoral campaigns, the M5S has been labeled as a populist. The unexpected result of 2013 election raises crucial theoretical questions: To what extent does the M5S electorate reflect the characteristics of a protest vote? To what extent was it also a vote driven by values, by individual evaluations on a specific political issue? The first part of the article aims to investigate the extent of negative political feelings among M5S’ voters. To disentangle the meaning and impact of protest, we distinguish two dimensions: the “system discontent” and the “élite discontent,” referring to both general and focalized images, sentiments toward and the representation of political institutions, voter power, and government performances. In the second part, we bring to the analysis a further explanation based on the theory of issue voting. The goal is to measure whether voters have chosen M5S purely because of their political resentment or also given that they shared a similar position on a number of crucial policies emphasized in the electoral campaign.
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