Who Did Participate in the Online Primary Elections of the Five Star Movement (M5S) in Italy? Causes, Features and Effects of the Selection Process

Lanzone, Maria Elisabetta; Rombi, Stefano

doi:10.1285/i20356609v7i1p170

Cited by 3 publications

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“…Moreover, the extant literature offers conflicting conclusions. Whereas some stress that candidate selection is (at least formally) a relatively inclusive process in both parties (Albertini 2019;Mikola 2017Mikola , 2019Pérez-Nievas et al 2018), others have doubts (mainly concerning the M5S) and claim it is 'hyper closed' (Lanzone and Rombi 2014;Seddone and Rombi 2018: 239). Most of these analyses 'do not capture the impact of informal pressure from the party leader on the outcome of primaries' (Mikola 2019: 103), 2 an aspect that, we argue, is key to understanding how candidate selection works in practice (see also Pérez-Nievas et al 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

Candidate Selection, Personalization and Different Logics of Centralization in New Southern European Populism: The Cases of Podemos and the M5S

2021

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In this article, we focus on the candidate selection processes of Podemos in Spain and the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S – Five Star Movement) in Italy, processes which are related to intra-party democracy. With a mixed-methods approach (including novel data from the expert survey PoPES, 31 semi-structured interviews with party representatives and militants, and analysis of party documents, statutes and leader speeches) and a comparative perspective, we explore candidate selection in the context of the broader organizational party structures over time. We find that: (1) Podemos functions like a typical centralized party, whereas M5S is a deviant case with strong and centralized control over party organization but decentralized mechanisms for candidate selection; (2) both these logics of centralization of power undermine the parties’ democratic credentials but have different consequences in terms of cohesion (expulsions/departures in M5S and splintering in Podemos); and (3) in both cases, the parties’ organizational culture and symbolic tools legitimate their top-down features.

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confidence: 99%