The Five Star Movement: Digital utopia and populism without adjectives

Authors

  • Andrea Betti Universidad Pontificia Comillas
  • Carlos Rico Motos Universidad Pontificia Comillas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/rep.189.08

Abstract

The irruption of the Five Star Movement (M5S) has deeply transformed the Italian party system. In an unprecedented phenomenon, a protest movement constituted around an internet blog has managed to move, in only eight years, from the virtual space of the Internet to the Italian government, alternately reaching agreements with formations located on the right and the left of the ideological spectrum. In order to clarify the political nature of this sui generis phenomenon, this case study relies on primary and secondary sources to analyze the ideology, organizational structure, programmatic measures and the profile of the M5S’s voters. The analysis concludes that the M5S constitutes a rare case of «pure populism», able to discursively integrate elements of conflicting ideologies and to connect with a widespread anti-political sentiment among Italian voters, thus maximizing its electoral performance.

Published

2020-09-28

Issue

Section

ARTICLES