The 'studiolo' of Federico da Montefeltro in Urbino An iconographic study

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Visual Political Communication in Italian Electoral Campaigns

After a brief introduction to the Italian political and communication scene, this chapter analyzes the electoral materials produced in the last four weeks of campaigning by the main political parties and candidates of the Italian general elections of March 2018. It focuses its attention on the forms and instruments of visual communication. The author highlights the evolution of the instruments and languages of electoral campaigns: the disappearance of the traditional forms of visual political communication, such as the street posters and TV ads, on the one hand, and the spread of new tools such as web cards, memes, and videos, on the other hand, with the latter closely related to the spread of social networks. What emerges is that the logic and rhetoric of social platforms is progressively changing the visual vocabularies and the strategies of engagement of politics and election candidates. The visual component is an increasingly important element in the process of emotionalization of political communication

Social Exclusion and the New Nationalism: European Trends and their Implications for Ireland

The current wave of nationalism in Europe can be described as a fundamentally new kind of nationalism and therefore warrants the term ‘the new nationalism’. The new nationalism is essentially based on strategies of social exclusion in contrast to the old nationalism which was state‐centred, integrative, and rested on totalizing ideologies. The new nationalism has emerged in the context of the end of the Cold War and is a product of the crisis of the nation‐state itself as a medium of social integration. Unlike the old nationalism the new nationalism is not monolithic and political but is primarily social. Applied to Ireland, certain trends which depart in some respects from the wider European tendency can be observed, particularly in the context of the present movement towards peace in Northern Ireland, which point towards a reflexive post‐nationalism. This, however, is ambivalent as there is also evidence of a nascent neo‐communitarian ideology of the nation which is essentially cultural and a contrast to post‐national reflexivity. Post‐nationalism is therefore faced with the challenges posed by contemporary nationalism which can be seen as a struggle between political, social, and cultural codes

The Rise and Faults of the Internalist Perspective in Extreme Right Studies

In contemporary political science, the extreme right phenomenon continues to attract considerable academic attention. Among major political developments in established Western-style democracies, few have provoked as much interest as the revival of different forms of right-wing radicalism and extremism in recent years (Betz 2003, 74). The number of studies focused on the subject, the number of scholars active in the field and the range of theoretical approaches have all expanded enormously (Mudde 2000, 6). In short, there has been an ‘explosive growth of the literature’ (Ignazi 2002, 22).1. Despite renewed interest in the ‘dark side of Europe’ (Harris 1994), it should not be overlooked that there exists a rich tradition of research focused upon various aspects of extreme right-wing politics. As pointed out by Norris (2005), social psychology, political psychology, political sociology and political science have all devoted significant efforts to investigating the social bases of support for a variety of manifestations commonly labelled ‘extreme right’, whether fascism and Nazism (e.g. Adorno et al. 1950), Poujadisme in France (Hoffman 1956), American phenomena such as McCarthyism and the John Birch Society (Bell 1963; Lipset and Raab 1970), or more recent developments in Western Europe (e.g. Betz 1994; Cheles et al. 1995; Kitschelt and McGann 1995; Merkl and Weinberg 1997; Ignazi 2003; Carter 2005). What differentiates previous instances of extreme right success from more recent examples is that the former, for example the Poujadists in 1956 or the German Nationaldemokratische Partei Deutschlands (NPD) in the 1960s, experienced only ‘flash’ success, while contemporary extreme right parties (ERPs) have exerted an appreciable impact upon a number of party systems over the course of a number of electoral cycles. As observed by Schain et al. (2002, 16), ‘there seems to be little question that the radical right has become an important political force in Western Europe’. The principal aim of this review article is to examine the scholarly response to the extreme right phenomenon and, to this end, is composed in the following manner: first, it outlines how a preoccupation with ‘demand-side’ or ‘externalist’ explanations led researchers away from examining extreme right parties (ERPs) and towards assessing the impact of socio-economic developments on levels of ERP electoral support. Second, although contributors have in recent years attempted to redress this imbalance by focusing increasingly upon party-centric factors, to date ‘internalist’ perspectives have suffered from a glaring lack of empirical analysis. The review concludes by suggesting that researchers might gain a richer insight into internalist dimensions and the nature of contemporary ERPs through examining the political actors at the heart of this phenomenon

Immigrant and Ethnic Minorities and the EU's 'Democratic Deficit'

This article explores the links between the development of European Union immigration policy and the frequently analysed 'democratic deficit'. It shows that immigration policy at EU level emphasizes tighter control of the numbers of immigrants and asylum-seekers, rather than the development of measures to combat racism and xenophobia. This emphasis stems from the provisions of the Single European Act, as free movement of EU nationals was seen as necessitating firm control of external frontiers. The consequence of this policy, it is argued, is accentuation of both institutional and participatory aspects of the 'democratic deficit'. Copyright 1995 BPL.