The 2013 election results: protest voting and political stalemate

The economic crisis, the fall of the Berlusconi's cabinet in November 2011 and the formation of the technocratic cabinet led by Mario Monti provided the ground for the general elections held in February 2013, which reached a stalemate, contrary to what most observers expected. The center-left coalition won in the Chamber but not in the Senate. The result in the Senate made it impossible to form a majority coalition between Bersani's left and Monti's center, which many considered the most likely outcome of these elections. In the end, the only available option for the PD, the winner in the Chamber, was to form a cabinet with Berlusconi's PdL. There are many factors explaining this destabilizing result. The first and most important is the success of a brand new anti-establishment party, the Five Star Movement, which attracted voters from across the political spectrum and became the largest party in the country. The second is the inability of the center-left not only to extend its electoral base at a time when the center-right lost almost half of the votes received in 2008, but also to keep its previous electorate. The third factor is the peculiar nature and functioning of the electoral system for the Senate

Solidarity with disabled people in times of crisis: a comparative analysis of Italy and the UK

Against the background of crisis and cuts, citizens can express solidarity with groups in various ways. Using novel survey data this article explores the attitudes and behaviours of citizens in their expressions of solidarity with disabled people and in doing so illuminates the differences and similarities across two European contexts: Italy and the UK. The findings reveal pools of solidarity with disabled people across both countries that have on the one hand similar foundations such as the social embeddedness and social trust of citizens, while on the other hand contain some differences, such as the more direct and active nature of solidarity in Italy compared to the UK and the role of religiosity as an important determinant, particularly in Italy. Across both countries the role of ‘deservingness’ was key to understanding solidarity, and the study’s conclusions raise questions about a solidarity embedded by a degree of paternalism and even religious piety

the social and political dimensions of solidarity in italy

This chapter explores the social and political dimensions of solidarity in Italy, providing new data and analyses on solidarity practices with respect to three target groups (the disabled, the unemployed, and the refugees) and explaining them with reference to social traits of the respondents, their beliefs, and their political preferences. Findings show that the most important factors fostering solidarity practices in Italy are social capital, religiosity, cognitive political involvement, and perceptions of deservingness. There are also group-related predictors of solidarity: political factors play a more important role for support towards the unemployed and above all refugees compared to support for the disabled; solidarity towards refugees is bounded by political orientations and at the same time is an unconditioned and universalistic form of solidarity

“Something Olde, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue…”. On the twenty-eight separate European elections of 2014

Together with “a sixpence in her shoe”, there are various items that are recommended as part of a bridal outfit, according to an old English rhyme. Humour might hardly be allowed as regards the recent European Parliament elections, given the success of Eurosceptic parties. However, we might comment that the 2014 EP election (expected by many commentators to be the first truly European election) was to some extent blessed by the presence of all such auspicious elements. That this has happened in times of economic crisis and rising Euroscepticism, would – again – not make it different from many weddings celebrated in difficult times, yet leading to long-lasting, successful marriages. But let’s go one step at a time

Crisi e rimobilitazione: gli italiani, la politica, i partiti nelle indagini campionarie del CISE (2011-2012)

Nella primavera 2012, pochi mesi dopo l\u2019insediamento del governo Monti, i partiti italiani toccavano il punto pi\uf9 basso della loro presa sull\u2019opinione pubblica italiana: altissime percentuali di astenuti e indecisi, con un elettorato demotivato da un\u2019offerta politica ancora incerta (anche a causa della difficile convivenza con un governo tecnico) e quindi incapace di strategie innovative. Tuttavia, \ue8 forse vero che la politica ha orrore del vuoto: l\u2019imminenza delle elezioni amministrative (del maggio 2012) e soprattutto l\u2019ingresso nell\u2019ultimo anno prima delle elezioni politiche segnano una ripresa dell\u2019iniziativa politica, sia da parte dei partiti esistenti che da parte di nuovi attori politici. Il primo a muoversi \ue8 il Movimento 5 Stelle, con un\u2019aggressiva strategia per le elezioni amministrative, in cui registrer\ue0 un grande successo. Ma in secondo luogo \ue8 il centrosinistra a gettarsi in una impegnativa e rischiosa strategia politica basata sulle primarie, che otterr\ue0 tuttavia il grande risultato di una significativa rimobilitazione del proprio elettorato. Tutte queste tendenze sono state puntualmente registrate dalla serie di indagini demoscopiche Osservatorio Politico CISE, condotte ogni sei mesi a partire dalla primavera 2011. I risultati di queste indagini, gi\ue0 pubblicati sul sito web Cise nel corso del 2012, sono raccolti oggi in questo secondo Dossier CISE. Una riflessione sul clima di opinione pubblica che conduce alle elezioni politiche del 2013, che vuole fornire dati utili per interpretare le ultime fasi della campagna elettorale e per inquadrare l\u2019ormai imminente risultato delle elezioni

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

Cosa succede in citt\ue0? Le elezioni comunali 2016

Il successo del Movimento 5 Stelle, con le vittorie storiche di Roma e Torino; le difficolt\ue0 del centrosinistra, con il PD di Renzi che subisce per la prima volta una pesante battuta d\u2019arresto; la tenuta del centrodestra che dimostra, quando \ue8 unito, di essere ancora un polo competitivo. Il tutto in un contesto di crescente astensionismo, volatilit\ue0 e frammentazione del quadro politico, con la stragrande maggioranza delle sfide decise solo al ballottaggio e la presenza di leader locali e candidati civici competitivi in diverse citt\ue0. Questi, in estrema sintesi, i risultati principali emersi dalla elezioni comunali del 2016. Una tornata elettorale che poteva apparire un appuntamento di secondaria importanza alla vigilia, ma che si \ue8 invece rivelato uno snodo cruciale per il futuro della politica italiana. \u2018Cosa succede in citt\ue0?\u2019 \ue8 la domanda a cui cerca di dare risposta questo ottavo Dossier CISE che raccoglie tutte le analisi sul tema pubblicate sul sito web CISE prima e dopo le elezioni: l\u2019analisi della situazione di partenza (dalle primarie al quadro dell\u2019offerta politica); i risultati del primo turno (con approfondimenti sulla partecipazione al voto, risultati di partiti e aree politiche, flussi elettorali, voto di preferenza e sull\u2019evoluzione del sistema partitico); i risultati dei ballottaggi, che delineano il quadro definitivo delle vittorie e delle sconfitte e mostrano con chiarezza quello che \ue8 forse il principale dato politico in chiave nazionale di queste elezioni locali: la capacit\ue0 del Movimento 5 Stelle di vincere sistematicamente i ballottaggi ottenendo le \u2018seconde preferenze\u2019 degli elettori dei candidati sconfitti al primo turno, confermando di essere una forza politica con un consenso trasversale, l\u2019unico vero \u2018partito della nazione\u2019. Le analisi di questo Dossier CISE, basate su dati aggregati e stime di flussi elettorali, forniscono una base empirica per la discussione e l\u2019interpretazione di questa tornata elettorale e offrono degli spunti di riflessione per ricerche future

The Italian General Election of 2013: a dangerous stalemate?

The third Eurozone economy and one of the six founders of the EEC (the direct ancestor of the European Union) in 1957, Italy is experiencing in recent years a season of political instability and uncertainty, especially after the crisis of Silvio Berlusconi\u2019s leadership in the centre-right camp. A situation which has not improved after the results of the general election held in February 2013, whose overall outcome can be described as a dangerous stalemate. A new, anti-establishment party (the 5-Star Movement led by comedian Beppe Grillo) becoming the largest party with 25,6% of votes; the absence of any cohesive political majority in the Senate (whose vote of confidence is required); the installation of a government based on an oversized, hardly manageable political majority, led by Enrico Letta. How did all this happen? What are the political and the institutional factors that produced this outcome? What is the size and scope of the success of Beppe Grillo? Where are his votes coming from? Who paid the \u201ccost of government\u201d for the previous legislature? What are the likely scenarios for the future? First answers to such questions are presented in this book, which collects revised versions of short research notes published in Italian on the CISE website between February and April 2013, along with additional material published in Italian and English by CISE scholars on the Italian and international media. The goal of this book is to provide \u2013 in a timely fashion \u2013 a set of fresh, short analyses, able to provide a non-technical audience (including journalists, practitioners of politics, and everyone interested in Italian politics) with information and data about Italian electoral politics. Even electoral scholars will find interesting information, able to stimulate the construction of more structured research hypotheses to be tested in more depth. Too often international commentators portray Italian politics in a superficial fashion, without the support of fresh data and a proper understanding of the deeper processes involved. With this book, in spite of its limited scope, we hope to contribute to filling this gap

Gaining votes in Europe against Europe? How national contexts shaped the results of Eurosceptic parties in the 2014 European parliament elections

In the wake of the harshest economic crisis since 1929, in several European countries there has been a rise of Eurosceptic parties that oppose EU integration. The 2014 European Parliament elections were a fundamental turning point for these parties. In this article, after a theoretical discussion on the concept of Euroscepticism, we provide an updated classification of Eurosceptic parties after the 2014 European Parliament elections. We show the cross-country variability of such parties' results and present two hypotheses aiming at explaining Eurosceptic parties' results, one related to each country's economic context and one related to each country's political-institutional context. Through a comparative approach and the use of quantitative data, we test the two hypotheses by creating two standardised indices of economic and political-institutional contexts. Three important findings are shown: Eurosceptic parties perform better in either rich, creditor countries or in poor countries; Eurosceptic parties perform better in countries with peculiar political-institutional features, such as high levels of party system instability and a more permissive electoral system; finally, and crucially, favourable political-institutional contexts seem to be more important than favourable economic contexts for Eurosceptic parties' electoral results

Cholinesterase Inhibitors: Drugs Looking for a Disease?

Maggini and colleagues examine the evidence on cholinesterase inhibitors for treating dementia. "What seemed a biologically plausible intervention," they say, "has not led to a proven, real improvement in patients' well-being.