The cohesion of committees is key in determining their legislative effectiveness

The role played by legislative committees in parliamentary democracies is a rather underestimated topic. After all, legislative standing committees exist in almost all parliamentary democracies. Still, they can have an impact on our understanding of how a democracy works. Luigi Curini explains what exactly it encompasses, and argues that the similarity of committee members’ preferences represents the most important factor in deciding the effectiveness of committee work

Fortuna e abilità in 65 anni di serie A

Introduzione – 1. Come posizionare i Campionati di Serie A lungo il continuum fortuna/abilità – 2. L’andamento della fortuna nel tempo – 3. Quali fattori dietro la fortuna: ipotesi di ricerca – 4. I fattori che spiegano il peso della fortuna in Serie A – 5. Fortuna e media spettatori – 6. Il Campionato di Serie A 2010/11 in chiave diacronica e in ottica europea – 7. I campionati e le squadre più (e meno) fortunati – Conclusioni – Bibliografiafortuna, abilità, campionato di calcio di serie A

Commenting on Political Topics Through Twitter: Is European Politics European?

The aim of this study was to explore social media, and specifically Twitter's potential to generate a European demos. Our use of data derived from social media complements the traditional use of mass media and survey data within existing studies. We selected two Twitter hashtags of European relevance, #schengen and #ttip, to test several theories on a European demos (non-demos, European democracy, or pan-European demos) and to determine which of these theories was most applicable in the case of Twitter topics of European relevance. To answer the research question, we performed sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis performed on data gathered on social media platforms, such as Twitter, constitutes an alternative methodological approach to more formal surveys (e.g., Eurobarometer) and mass media content analysis. Three dimensions were coded: (1) sentiments toward the issue public, (2) sentiments toward the European Union (EU), and (3) the type of framing. Among all of the available algorithms for conducting sentiment analysis, integrated sentiment analysis (iSA), developed by the Blog of Voices at the University of Milan, was selected for the data analysis. This is a novel supervised algorithm that was specifically designed for analyses of social networks and the Web 2.0 sphere (Twitter, blogs, etc.), taking the abundance of noise within digital environments into consideration. An examination and discussion of the results shows that for these two hashtags, the results were more aligned with the demoicracy and "European lite identity" models than with the model of a pan-European demos

Who looks up to the Leviathan? Ideology, political trust, and support for restrictive state interventions in times of crisis

The extent in which voters from different ideological viewpoints support state interventions to curb crises remains an outstanding conundrum, marred by conflicting evidence. In this article, we test two possible ways out from such puzzle. The role of ideology to explain support for state interventions, we argue, could be (i) conditional upon the ideological nature of the crisis itself (e.g., whether the crisis relates to conservation vs. post-materialist values), or (ii) unfolding indirectly, by moderating the role played by political trust. We present evidence from a conjoint experiment fielded in 2022 on a representative sample of 1,000 Italian citizens, in which respondents were asked whether they support specific governmental interventions to curb a crisis, described under different conditions (e.g., type of crisis, severity). Our results show that the type of crisis matters marginally – right-wing respondents were more likely to support state interventions only in the case of terrorism. More fundamentally, political trust affects the probability to support state interventions, but only for right-wing citizens

Generational gap and post-ideological politics in Italy (POSTGEN): A generation-aware analysis of ideological destructuring and political change in the Italian case

Recent political upheavals, such as Brexit, Trump's election, the rise of challenger parties in Europe, and Italy’s first "populist" government in 2018, challenge traditional theories of voting behaviour and party competition. Conventional explanations often point to populism and voter irrationality. However, recent research highlights that challenger parties leverage issue opportunities that transcend traditional ideological boundaries, suggesting a de-ideologized context where voters are drawn to post-ideological platforms. Despite these insights, a possible de-ideologization process remains insufficiently understood. The POSTGEN project seeks to fill this gap by analysing de-ideologization mechanisms and dynamics, particularly in Italy—a key case of contemporary political transformation. It adopts a generation-focused approach, emphasizing the role of younger generations in the evolving political landscape. The project examines how political attitudes develop and impact individuals, generations, and society over time. It investigates whether political issues integrate into coherent ideological structures or remain fragmented, and how non-political influencers affect these dynamics amid the crisis of traditional epistemic authorities. The project employs a mixed-method, multi-method, longitudinal strategy that features multiple components: from mass surveys, to social media content (also analysed through automated methods), to dedicated surveys aimed at secondary-school students, to qualitative in-depth interviews to young adults. By integrating these methods within a robust theoretical framework, POSTGEN aims to provide insights into the evolution of the Italian political systems, also to help understand broader changes in democratic representation in Western political systems

Generational gap and post-ideological politics in Italy (POSTGEN) : a generation-aware analysis of ideological destructuring and political change in the Italian case

Publication date: 11 July 2024Recent political upheavals, such as Brexit, Trump's election, the rise of challenger parties in Europe, and Italy’s first "populist" government in 2018, challenge traditional theories of voting behaviour and party competition. Conventional explanations often point to populism and voter irrationality. However, recent research highlights that challenger parties leverage issue opportunities that transcend traditional ideological boundaries, suggesting a de-ideologized context where voters are drawn to post-ideological platforms. Despite these insights, a possible de-ideologization process remains insufficiently understood. The POSTGEN project seeks to fill this gap by analysing de-ideologization mechanisms and dynamics, particularly in Italy—a key case of contemporary political transformation. It adopts a generation-focused approach, emphasizing the role of younger generations in the evolving political landscape. The project examines how political attitudes develop and impact individuals, generations, and society over time. It investigates whether political issues integrate into coherent ideological structures or remain fragmented, and how non-political influencers affect these dynamics amid the crisis of traditional epistemic authorities. The project employs a mixed-method, multi-method, longitudinal strategy that features multiple components: from mass surveys, to social media content (also analysed through automated methods), to dedicated surveys aimed at secondary-school students, to qualitative in-depth interviews to young adults. By integrating these methods within a robust theoretical framework, POSTGEN aims to provide insights into the evolution of the Italian political systems, also to help understand broader changes in democratic representation in Western political systems

Commenting on political topics through Twitter : is European politics European ?

Article first published online: November 28, 2019The aim of this study was to explore social media, and specifically Twitter’s potential to generate a European demos. Our use of data derived from social media complements the traditional use of mass media and survey data within existing studies. We selected two Twitter hashtags of European relevance, #schengen and #ttip, to test several theories on a European demos (non-demos, European democracy, or pan-European demos) and to determine which of these theories was most applicable in the case of Twitter topics of European relevance. To answer the research question, we performed sentiment analysis. Sentiment analysis performed on data gathered on social media platforms, such as Twitter, constitutes an alternative methodological approach to more formal surveys (e.g., Eurobarometer) and mass media content analysis. Three dimensions were coded: (1) sentiments toward the issue public, (2) sentiments toward the European Union (EU), and (3) the type of framing. Among all of the available algorithms for conducting sentiment analysis, integrated sentiment analysis (iSA), developed by the Blog of Voices at the University of Milan, was selected for the data analysis. This is a novel supervised algorithm that was specifically designed for analyses of social networks and the Web 2.0 sphere (Twitter, blogs, etc.), taking the abundance of noise within digital environments into consideration. An examination and discussion of the results shows that for these two hashtags, the results were more aligned with the demoicracy and “European lite identity” models than with the model of a pan-European demos

L'arte di fare e disfare i governi. Da De Gasperi a Renzi, 70 anni di politica italiana

Numerosi e storicamente instabili, i governi italiani del dopoguerra hanno rappresentato un oggetto di particolare interesse per la scienza politica. Del resto, in un contesto in cui nessun esecutivo \ue8 riuscito a coprire un\u2019intera legislatura, fare (e disfare) i governi ha costituito una fra le pi\uf9 frequenti espressioni della competizione partitica. Scopo di questo volume \ue8 fare luce su quali sono stati i fattori principali che hanno contribuito a determinare tempi, modi ed esiti della competizione per il controllo dell\u2019esecutivo, non tanto sottolineando la presunta eccezionalit\ue0 del caso italiano, quanto ricorrendo all'applicazione sistematica delle teorie elaborate dalla letteratura comparata per lo studio del ciclo di vita dei governi. La ricerca si basa su dati originali, fra cui l\u2019Italian Legislative Speech Dataset (ILSD), che raccoglie il prodotto dell\u2019analisi del contenuto dei dibattiti parlamentari che precedono il voto di fiducia al governo. Lo stile adottato mira a fare del volume un utile strumento di conoscenza della politica in Italia e della sua evoluzione dal dopoguerra a oggi