Cecilia Biancalana’s research while affiliated with University of Turin and other places

What are the characteristics of a political protest that enable it to win public support, and what is the role of the political environment? The literature has argued about the characteristics that induce the public to sympathize with protesters (such as the identity of the protesters, their demands, and their methods), but little research has focused on the role of the political context, which includes the presence of other protests making different (or even opposite) demands, the contrasting identity of the protesters, and protest methods. In the research reported in this study, we focused on two protests that unfolded during 2023–24 in Italy (protests by environmental activists and farmers/livestock raisers) to investigate the impact of protesters' identity on public perceptions of their action's legitimacy, when two protests with contrasting aims but similar methods occur at the same time. We used a pre-registered randomized experimental design that manipulated the sequence in which a sample of respondents was presented with descriptions of protests by both groups. Our findings suggest that the sequence in which protests are presented significantly affect respondents' perceptions. Once primed with the evaluation of the farmers' protests, in fact, they perceive climate activists' actions as more legitimate. Our results suggest that people tend to comparatively evaluate social movements and to adjust their opinions accordingly when exposed to cognitively dissonant information.

Climate change has emerged as a critical global challenge, recognized for its significant impact on the environment and societies worldwide. Nonetheless, for a long time, the Italian political system has devoted limited attention to climate change issues. Within such a framework, this article aims to answer the main research question addressed in the contributions of this special issue: is the politicization of climate change taking place in contemporary Italy? We answer this question by analyzing the three dimensions of politicization – salience, actors’ expansion, and polarization - in light of the contributions to the special issue. These studies investigate whether climate change is becoming a politicized issue by analyzing Italian parties, media, social movements, interest groups, and public opinion. Overall, the findings suggest that we are observing a partial politicization of the climate change issue in Italy. Indeed, there is evidence of an increase in salience over time in the spheres analyzed and an expansion of actors involved. Also, there are some signals of polarization, and consistent with previous research, the climate change issue largely appears positional. Nonetheless, the number of protests has substantially decreased in comparison with 2019, the approach of some actors tends to depoliticize the issue, and patterns of polarization are not unanimously detected.

The year 2023 was a year of consolidation for the government of Giorgia Meloni ( Fratelli d'Italia ). After the turbulent 2022, the 2023 electoral landscape in Italy saw minimal changes at the national level. However, while there were no national elections, regional elections were held in five regions, bearing witness to shifts and stances within both the majority and the opposition. At the national party level, leadership changes occurred both in the center‐left and in the center‐right. On the one hand, following primary elections, Elly Schlein became the first woman to lead the Partito Democratico . On the other, Forza Italia faced uncertainty following the passing of Silvio Berlusconi, with Antonio Tajani appointed interim leader. Other than that, the political landscape in Italy remained relatively stable in 2023, with Giorgia Meloni seeking to consolidate her leadership within the coalition and her credibility as head of government, while the opposition strove to reorganize.

This article was motivated by the question whether gamification represents a substantial innovation in internal party democracy, by contributing to change the dynamics of power within parties. To answer this question, we examine the only known case of gamification in the field of internal party voting, launched by the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle. We expected that gamified internal votes would reduce the incumbent advantage and promote party activists. Our data, however, suggest that these decision-making processes follow the same logic as the traditional ones. We thus conclude that digital innovations often end up working as “business as usual”.

Despite the recent wealth of literature on national populism, research has often overlooked one crucial aspect: the border. This innovative book bridges these key concepts, providing a new theoretical conceptualisation of the interplay between populism, nationalism and territorial borders. In this book, borders are not considered as mere institutional boundaries between nation states; on the contrary, the authors adopt a multi-dimensional view of borders as narratives, issues and territorial spaces of mobilisation. Reconsidering the contemporary politicisation of borders in Western Europe, the authors investigate how national populism deals with territorial borders and the various meanings they embody. Empirical case studies focusing on the Swiss borderlands explore parties’ programmes and discourses, representatives’ attitudes, as well as public opinion and voting behaviour, offering key insights into how political actors and citizens react to trends such as growing transnational flows, globalisation and European integration. This timely book, based on original party sources and surveys, will be an essential resource for students and scholars of political science, political sociology, border studies, European integration, Euroscepticism and Swiss politics. Its context-oriented analysis will also prove beneficial to practitioners and representatives involved in cross-border cooperation.