Are critical citizens a threat to democracy? Political trust and economic crisis in Europe

Democratic crisis and organized distrust: what is the democratic deficit. Change or crisis? Citizens, parties and institutions in advanced industrial democracies: theoretical perspectives. Cross-national determinants of political trust and democratic responsiveness: consolidated trends and directions of analysis. Political disaffection and political performance: economic crisis and political. The institutional perspective: the political consequences of economic crisis. A threat from below? Critical citizenship in times of economic crisis: a tale from European countries.Democratic crisis and organized distrust: what is the democratic deficit. Change or crisis? Citizens, parties and institutions in advanced industrial democracies: theoretical perspectives. Cross-national determinants of political trust and democratic responsiveness: consolidated trends and directions of analysis. Political disaffection and political performance: economic crisis and political. The institutional perspective: the political consequences of economic crisis. A threat from below? Critical citizenship in times of economic crisis: a tale from European countries.LUISS PhD Thesi

Le sfide della partecipazione: le elezioni primarie nel sistema italiano: uno studio di genere

Le primarie nel sistema italiano: un esperimento tra personalizzazione politica e democrazia interna. Le primarie della Sinistra italiana. Primarie e politiche di genere: prospettive di ricerca.Le primarie nel sistema italiano: un esperimento tra personalizzazione politica e democrazia interna. Le primarie della Sinistra italiana. Primarie e politiche di genere: prospettive di ricerca.Refereed Working Papers / of international relevanc

What is the mud machine (“macchina del fango”): genesis and development of a political use of media power

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Case studies: Mara Carfagna e Mariastella Gelmini

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The ‘European way of life’, a new narrative for the EU? Institutions’ vs citizens’ view

The ‘European way of life’ (EWOL) has emerged as a new narrative in the communication of the European Union (EU) after the 2019 European elections. The article analyses the social relevance and meanings of this legitimizing narrative against the background of similar past communicative attempts; and compares its framing by EU institutions with its understanding by citizens. We rely on the results of a survey exploring the cultural and normative foundations of the European multi-level governance in eight countries, (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain, UK). Our findings are twofold. First, the EWOL narrative does not differ much of previous narratives; and the popular perceptions of EWOL are in line with its institutional definition. Second, EWOL has a low public salience and remains an elusive topic. As a conclusion, it is unlikely to significantly alter EU legitimization.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Towards an ever stronger politicization? How members of the European Parliament deal with values in social networks

Since the 2000s, the reference to ‘values’ has become a key topic in the legitimation and politicization of the European Union (EU). This article studies to which extent and how members of the European Parliament (MEPs) mobilize values in their Facebook communication and whether it contributes to the politicization–understood as polarization–of their discourse. Our findings show that references to values are minor in MEPs’ Facebook discourse. Differences are visible along national and party lines and according to issues at stake. However, no clear patterns emerge to relate specific value narratives to stable coalition- or conflict-lines. Empirically, the article analyses Facebook posts by MEPs of four nationalities (France, Italy, Poland and Hungary) in pre- and post-electoral times (March 2019–March 2020). Theoretically, it contributes to the literature on the politicization and legitimation of the EU; and on MEPs’ communication and use of social networks.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

La partecipazione politica fra crisi dei partiti e democrazia partecipativa

2noAbstract. This article proposes an analysis of the relationships amongst the crisis of political parties, the insurgence of phenomena such as the cognitive mobilization and the role of participatory and deliberative democracy as frame for new forms of civic engagement. The authors also focus over the transformation of the public sphere and the need for scholars and politicians to go beyond a normative conception of the mediatised public space. The rising of new forms of political parties (cartel party, “presidentialized” party, franchise party) is strongly connected with the partisan dealignment, the crisis of the liberal representative democracy and the deep transformation of the public sphere; in the same time, new forms of active citizenship and civic engagement can replace and/or support the political parties. The participatory and deliberative democracy challenges the old politics and can represent both a tool and a frame for strengthening the new forms of political participation.reservedmixedM. Sorice; N. TrinoSorice, Michele; Trino, Noem

Standing for Europe: Citizens' perceptions of European symbols as evidence of a “banal Europeanism”?

This article analyses the perception of the symbols of the European Union (EU) by citizens. Relying on a survey of a representative sample of the population in eight countries (France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Romania, Spain and the United Kingdom) carried out in December 2020, it investigates to which extent these symbols are considered as good representations of the EU and differences related to political, cultural, social and economic belongings. Empirically, our findings show a large acknowledgement of these symbols in congruence with general attitudes towards the EU. Theoretically, it offers some evidence of the existence of a “banal Europeanism” taking - to a certain extent - European symbolism as granted in contrast with its politicisation in elite discursive struggles.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Characterizing networks of propaganda on twitter: a case study

Abstract The daily exposure of social media users to propaganda and disinformation campaigns has reinvigorated the need to investigate the local and global patterns of diffusion of different (mis)information content on social media. Echo chambers and influencers are often deemed responsible of both the polarization of users in online social networks and the success of propaganda and disinformation campaigns. This article adopts a data-driven approach to investigate the structuration of communities and propaganda networks on Twitter in order to assess the correctness of these imputations. In particular, the work aims at characterizing networks of propaganda extracted from a Twitter dataset by combining the information gained by three different classification approaches, focused respectively on (i) using Tweets content to infer the “polarization” of users around a specific topic, (ii) identifying users having an active role in the diffusion of different propaganda and disinformation items, and (iii) analyzing social ties to identify topological clusters and users playing a “central” role in the network. The work identifies highly partisan community structures along political alignments; furthermore, centrality metrics proved to be very informative to detect the most active users in the network and to distinguish users playing different roles; finally, polarization and clustering structure of the retweet graphs provided useful insights about relevant properties of users exposure, interactions, and participation to different propaganda items.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Assessing the Socio-economic, Technological, and Political Impact of ICT Tools for Migrant Integration

Sociotechnical solutions and, more generally, ICT tools can support migrants and refugees’ integration in many ways; they can also help local actors in providing more efficient services to them. This chapter describes the impact assessment framework developed for mapping the potential impacts of sociotechnical solutions such as the one developed within the REBUILD project. Using ad hoc dimensions and subdimensions, the framework considers impact on migrants and refugees; public administrations and other actors acting as local service providers; citizens; and the whole society.Societal, economic, technological and political impact areas are considered. Each dimension is articulated in several subdimensions which include impact on education and human capital; impact on health; impact on social capital; impact on employment and economic empowerment; impact on service efficiency; impact on digitalisation and technology usage; and impact on trust in local institutions and impact on policies. The proposed framework follows a mixed method – quali-quantitative approach – that can be used in a modular way to adapt to the specificities of different sociotechnical tools and local conditions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe