The personalization of power

Personal power has been thus far a taboo to academic political science. It forces us to reconsider many of our basic assumptions. It shakes the very foundations of orthodox democratic theory. The new century and, for that matter, the new millennium is one where personal power will dictate new rules and new directions. Leaders of today's democracies have access to a tremendous amount of resources: financial, communicational, institutional. They do so through legitimate democratic channels, which makes for a clear-cut difference from all sorts of dictators that political systems have experimented in the past. And they may enjoy extraordinary levels of popularity, in what often becomes a direct relationship with the electorate. The amount of personal power a democratic leader can today accumulate is thus unprecedented. Yet this rise of personal power is not the result of a deviation, a deliberate deviation from the ordinary regime. Personalization of politics, much more than an individual choice, has become a structural and systemic element of contemporary politics

Into the third Republic: parties without presidents (and presidents without parties)

The record of the last twenty years shows that most of the hopes put in the Second republic have been betrayed. Rather than a two party system reproducing the Westminster model, Italy has nurtured two highly fragmented coalitions, which have, in the latest national elections, been outplayed by a third pole, the protest movement of Beppe Grillo. The result is a tri-polar system, where a parliamentary majority can only be obtained by pulling together two bitterly antagonistic parties, with very little, if any, governmental stability. This article explains why the Second Republic failed to meet the expectations of the reform movement which strived to set Italian politics on a better track. It outlines how the main features of the emerging regime -the so-called Third republic- reflect, as it is often the case, the legacies of the previous one

The personalization of power

Personal power has been thus far a taboo to academic political science. It forces us to reconsider many of our basic assumptions. It shakes the very foundations of orthodox democratic theory. The new century and, for that matter, the new millennium is one where personal power will dictate new rules and new directions. Leaders of today's democracies have access to a tremendous amount of resources: financial, communicational, institutional. They do so through legitimate democratic channels, which makes for a clear-cut difference from all sorts of dictators that political systems have experimented in the past. And they may enjoy extraordinary levels of popularity, in what often becomes a direct relationship with the electorate. The amount of personal power a democratic leader can today accumulate is thus unprecedented. Yet this rise of personal power is not the result of a deviation, a deliberate deviation from the ordinary regime. Personalization of politics, much more than an individual choice, has become a structural and systemic element of contemporary politics

E-investigación: una introducción para principiantes (y escépticos) a las fuentes de ciencia política disponibles en la web

El propósito de este artículo de revisión es el de contribuir al seguimiento y el debate de los cambios en el entorno de la investigación electrónica. Vamos a presentar una visión general (adaptado principalmente a los neófitos del ciberespacio) de algunos de los mejores recursos electrónicos disponibles en línea para la ciencia política, la elaboración de nuestra experiencia como editores de IPSA-Portal, el sitio web de la Asociación Internacional de Ciencia Política dedicada a la selección y revisión los mejores e-hubs en nuestra disciplina. Sin embargo, al aventurarse en el ciberespacio de la ciencia política, vamos a tratar de ofrecer una comprensión más general de las principales tendencias que afectan la galaxia del internet. Por mucho que estemos tentados sólo para pegarnos a nuestro pequeño planeta, tenemos que ser conscientes de que es parte de, y surge de, un sistema mucho más grande

E-investigación: una introducción para principiantes (y escépticos) a las fuentes de ciencia política disponibles en la web

El propósito de este artículo de revisión es el de contribuir al seguimiento y el debate de los cambios en el entorno de la investigación electrónica. Vamos a presentar una visión general (adaptado principalmente a los neófitos del ciberespacio) de algunos de los mejores recursos electrónicos disponibles en línea para la ciencia política, la elaboración de nuestra experiencia como editores de IPSA-Portal, el sitio web de la Asociación Internacional de Ciencia Política dedicada a la selección y revisión los mejores e-hubs en nuestra disciplina. Sin embargo, al aventurarse en el ciberespacio de la ciencia política, vamos a tratar de ofrecer una comprensión más general de las principales tendencias que afectan la galaxia del internet. Por mucho que estemos tentados sólo para pegarnos a nuestro pequeño planeta, tenemos que ser conscientes de que es parte de, y surge de, un sistema mucho más grande

Giovanni Sartori e la democrazia della Seconda Repubblica

Il saggio ripercorre e analizza criticamente tutti i passaggi istituzionali della cosiddetta Seconda Repubblica, ossia della peculiare democrazia maggioritaria che si imposta in Italia a partire dal 1994. Tali passaggi sono visti all'interno del pensiero di Giovanni Sartori e in particolare della sua teoria della democrazia. Tale pensiero si è manifestato sia attraverso opere scientifiche sia attraverso una continua attività pubblicistica, in particolare dalle colonne, come editorialista, del Corriere della Sera. Dall'esame di questo pensiero emerge una serrata e continua critica dei caratteri istituzionali della peculiare democrazia maggioritaria all'italiana.The essay traces and critically analyzes all the institutional steps of the so-called Italian Second Republic, that is the peculiar majoritarian democracy that is set in Italy since 1994. These steps are seen within the thoughts of Giovanni Sartori and in particular of his theory of democracy . Such thinking has manifested both through scientific works both through continuous publications, in particular from the columns, as a columnist, of the Corriere della Sera. From an examination of this thinking emerges a close and continuous criticism of the institutional character of the distinctive Italian style majoritarian democracy

Governo di partito. Antecedenti e conseguenze in America

Governo di partito. Antecedenti e conseguenze in Americ