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ABSTRACT
This article considers the institutionalisation of the Five-star Movement (M5s) in regional and local councils. It discusses the process of the Movement’s institutionalisation, analysing the development of its internal organisation; its local platforms and political performance; its institutional repertoire of action, and the several internal and external conflicts between its own rules and the ‘others’. In particular, the article investigates the changes affecting the M5s after its engagement with the Sicilian regional assembly and Sicilian municipal councils, and the ways in which the specific institutionalisation process it underwent was influenced by the complexities of the political and socio-economic context. It concludes that in studying the local level, it is possible better to understand the nature of its organisation and the type of institutionalisation it has undergone.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Panebianco (Citation1988) considers four ‘organizational dilemmas’: the first is described by the rational model versus the natural systems model (organisations as ‘instruments for the realization of specific goals’ vs organisations as structures that respond to a multitude of demands from various stakeholders). The second dilemma considers the alternative between collective and selective incentives. The third dilemma is adaption vs domination. The fourth dilemma concerns the freedom of action of leaders vs the organisational constraints upon them. These dilemmas are linked. For example: ‘Whereas interests of self-preservation fed by selective incentives push the organization to adapt to its environment, the loyalties tied to collective incentives and to organizational ideology push it to dominate it. Holding environmental conditions constant, the more the selective incentives prevail in the organization, the more the organization will develop strategies of domination’ (13–14).
2. The source for general elections is the Ministry of the Interior’s website (http://dait.interno.gov.it/elezioni), for Sicilian regional and local elections, the Sicilian region’s Servizio Elettorale website (http://www.elezioni.regione.sicilia.it/).
3. The political opportunity structure at the national level – with the crisis of the mass parties, globalisation and economic crisis, the emergence of new social cleavages, political corruption (Biorcio Citation2015) etc – supported the rise of populism, as did mistrust of public institutions and politics, and demands for radical change (Diamanti Citation2017). Mistrust is particularly strong in Sicily, where people regard public services as unreliable, and their confidence in the institutions of regional and local government is much lower than among citizens of the central and northern regions. In the south of Italy the unemployment rate (19.4%) is three times higher than in the north (6.9%) and double the rate of unemployment in the central regions (10%) (Diamanti Citation2017). The Movement’s flagship proposal of a citizens’ income is likely to have been effective in mobilising the support of Sicilians in the general election campaign.
4. Istitut Demopolis 2018: http://tgs.gds.it/2018/03/08/elezioni-lanalisi-dellistituto-demopolis-sul-voto-in-sicilia_814642/.
5. See the ‘Contract for the government of change’: https://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2018/05/summary_of_the_contract_for_the_government_of_change_in_italy.html.
6. Interview with Patrizio Cinque cited in Buffa (Citation2017).
9. The consortium Coinres (Consorzio Intercomunale Rifiuti, Energia, Servizi), set up by a number of municipalities in the Palermo district, was found to have illegally employed several members of Cosa Nostra or their accomplices. Poor management of the consortium had led to huge debts and numerous disputes with employees who, without regular salaries, refused to collect waste for days, damaging the environment and the health of citizens (http://palermo.meridionews.it/articolo/37743/bagheria-infiltrazioni-mafiose-al-coinres-cinque-necessario-il-suo-scioglimento/).
10. Regulation on public collaboration between citizens and the town for the care and regeneration of urban commons, n°18, 19 April 2018 (https://comune.bagheria.pa.it/amministrazione-condivisa/).
11. Such as the protest of Sicilian mayors who drove garbage dumpers to the Palazzo d’Orleans, headquarters of the regional presidency, in order to highlight the never-ending waste emergency: http://palermo.gds.it/2016/07/11/sindaci-in-protesta-per-lemergenza-rifiuti-cinque-crocetta-si-assuma-le-sue-responsabilita_538004/.
13. There is a website. ‘DifferenziAMO Bagheria’ (http://www.differenziamobagheria.it/), for keeping citizens informed. Citizens can report failures to empty waste bins, illegal dumping or inappropriate burning of garbage by telephone and through WhatsApp. A Facebook page has been set up (@Differenziamoci) as a repository for complaints and photo-documentation.
16. A former police officer who became a Cosa Nostra member and later an informer.
19. http://livesicilia.it/2015/09/02/una-parentopoli-cinquestelle-a-bagheria-scoppia-la-guerra-degli-incarichi-esterni_659635/; http://www.favaraweb.com/i-consiglieri-dellopposizione-interpellanza-al-sindaco-sulla-nomine-al-collegio-sindacale-del-voltano/.
21. Giulia Di Vita, Sicilian M5s member of the Chamber of Deputies.
22. The ‘Non-statute’ is available online: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/materiali-bg/Regolamento-Movimento-5-Stelle.pdf.
23. Information is the basis of any other area of social interest. An ignorant or uninformed citizen cannot decide, cannot choose. He only assumes a consumer role and he is passive voter, excluded from decisions concerning him’. (http://www.beppegrillo.it/iniziative/movimentocinquestelle/Programma-Movimento-5-Stelle.pdf).
24. Protocol Office, Sicilian regional assembly.
25. Note of Protocol. 487/Gab.
26. Art. 34 bis paragraph 1 reads: ‘In special cases, and where there are issues of major public interest, the legislative standing committees may, subject to the prior approval of the chair, hold meetings open to the public’.
27. i.e. the Budget and Planning Commission.
28. Note of Protocol 762/Gab.
30. The staff of the Sicilian regional assembly have sought greater employment security and now have permanent contracts. They had previously been employed by the party groups through temporary contracts.
32. For further information www.sicilia5stelle.it/microcredito/; www.polmoniurbani.it/; http://www.sicilia5stelle.it/2015/07/promessa-mantenuta-inaugurata-in-tempi-record-via-dellonesta-la-scorciatoia-5stelle-per-bypassare-linterruzione-della-a19/.
33. In 2017, the M5s approved a new Non-statute and code of conduct governing members caught up in judicial proceedings. The Board of Arbitrators can order the precautionary suspension of a member and decide on other disciplinary sanctions including expulsions. On uncertainty reduction theory, see Weick (Citation1995).
34. On 28 June 2018, the Guarantee committee established new rules governing payments to M5s representatives elected to Parliament, the European parliament and regional assemblies (https://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/immagini/TRATTAMENTO%20ECONOMICO%20ELETTI%20-%20MOVIMENTO%205%20STELLE.pdf). Article 10 obliges parliamentarians and regional councillors to contribute €300 per month to a fund designed to assist members caught up in legal proceedings as well as to defend the Movement and the Rousseau Association.
35. For example, the mayors of the first eight M5s municipalities in Sicily achieved waste recycling targets that exceeded the regional average, and in some cases also the ambitious aims of the EU Circular, Economy Action Plan for 2030.
36. The leaders of the Movement have decided to ‘shed their skin’ with a new statute and new rules, all in the name of a fake democracy in which participation in decision making within the Movement has been confined to a few men who have devised and imposed a new set of ‘commandments’‘ (Open letter of a former local activist, in SiciliaOnPress 25 January 2018).
37. The new M5s guidelines ‘will be the load star all of our representatives will be obliged to follow, but they are not enough. We want them to become an immediate legal obligation, thereby extending the new financial probity to the representatives of all parties and so putting to an end the hateful privileges of politicians’ (https://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2018/06/un_nuovo_regolamento_contro_i_privilegi_della_politica_tirendiconto.html).
38. Coercive isomorphism takes place when organizations are submitted to external pressures, formal or informal, originating from other organizations on which they are dependent or owing to the cultural expectations of the society in which the organization is inserted. The best known example of this mechanism is the action of the government on organizations, through laws, norms and demands […]. Normative isomorphism stems directly from the establishment of patterns by a determined professional community with a view to cognitively founding and giving legitimacy to its developed activity […]. Finally, mimetic isomorphism occurs in times of uncertainty, which compels organizations to seek structuration patterns and actions from other organizations. When seeing the success of other organizations in the same business, organizations tend to display mimetic behavior’ (Sampaio de Freitas and Guimarães Citation2007, 39).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marilena Macaluso
Marilena Macaluso (Ph.D. in Sociology of Legal and Political Institutions and Analysis of the Administrative Apparatus) is Research fellow/Assistant professor in Political Sociology. She is a holder the national scientific qualification (in general, political and legal sociology) certifying eligibility for the position of Associate Professor in Italian universities. She has published several books and articles, and is involved in a number of research projects, in the area of Political Sociology.
Francesca Montemagno
Francesca Montemagno is a PhD candidate in Political Science in the Department of Political and Social Sciences of the University of Catania. Her academic training and research interests are centred on political communication, electoral systems and political representation. She recently spent three years working as a member of the staff of the Vice-President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly