The end of Gulliver’s travels: MPs and leaderisation in the Italian parliament

ABSTRACT

The structure of the M5s group in the Italian parliament has become more clearly defined during the eighteenth legislature, with the rise of identifiable leaders and the start of a process of internal segmentation. The study examines the process of vertical differentiation from 2013 to 2018, considering simultaneously the intra-group dynamics; the process of political personalisation in the media, and instrumental leadership, linked to the MPs’ work in Parliament. Focusing on the identification of relational dynamics, the analysis highlights a process of homogenisation in the group and the role of specific political resources in the pronouncements of the leadership.

KEYWORDS:

• Five-star movement
• personalisation
• institutionalisation
• network analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This involved opposing the re-election of any MPs subject to criminal investigations.

2. Although the expulsions of four MPs (Lorenzo Battista, Fabrizio Bocchino, Francesco Campanella and Luis Orellana) came after a decision made by the group (and ratified by an on-line vote involving the membership), other MPs have been subject to other procedures (see Ceri and Veltri 2017, 258–261).

3. See Cavalli (1987) and, for a recent restatement, Bordignon (2014).

4. There was significant grass-roots support through the network of MeetUp groups. Before the 2013 general election, there were already more than 800 groups in more than 700 cities in Italy and the world.

5. In general, an activist can enrol in a local MeetUp without signing up for the blog or vice versa. Furthermore, it is possible to opt for full or partial membership distinguished in terms of the right to participate in online voting.

6. We are referring to Casaleggio Associati or, rather, to the communication and marketing professionals who are entrusted with the management of the strategic elements and processes of the M5s (the Blog, the MeetUps, election campaigns, and so on). See Mello (2013) and Ceri and Veltri (2017).

7. Many observers have emphasised the ambiguity surrounding this aspect, strongly influenced as it is by the position expressed by the leader through the Blog. The latter is the main source of information for large numbers of the activists who decide on the elected representatives’ futures.

8. Grillo proposed its institution in November 2014. The group is composed of five parliamentarians, Luigi Di Maio, Alessandro Di Battista, Roberto Fico, Carla Ruocco, and Carlo Sibilia, whose nominations were confirmed in a vote of 37,127 members enrolled on the Blog (91%). This super-ordinate entity was responsible for coordinating the work of the Movement in Parliament and representing the Movement in the media. Its existence was brief. With the birth of the Associazione MoVimento Cinque Stelle, the new directive bodies were the ‘Capo Politico’, the ‘Consiglio Direttivo’ and the members’ assembly (see Ceri and Veltri, 2017).

9. The ‘Comitato di Appello’ and the ‘Collegio dei Probiviri’. These bodies are composed of three persons who decide on members’ expulsion after a preliminary inquiry.

10. The analysis is carried out using software deployed for the study of social networks (Nodexl and Ucinet).

11. PageRank is an algorithm, mainly used by Google Search to determine the level of importance of an individual account, It is based on the quantity and quality of the links to the given page or account in order to understand their relevance. However, here we do not use the Google index but a similar measure built on communication via Twitter, the ‘Twitter PageRank’, as a measure of ‘prestige’ within Twitter networks depending on the number of relevant nodes (not only other MPs) contacting the reference node.

12. The index has numerous methodological problems (as Opnepolis Foundations researchers agree) if it is applied to MPs from different parliamentary groups (i.e. if it is used for inter-group comparisons) because belonging to the majority or the opposition influences the productivity index scores of the individual MPs. If the measure is applied to MPs in the same parliamentary groups (i.e. for intra-group comparisons), then it can be revealing.

13. According to a study by De Sio (2013), there is a very strong relationship between the voter’s preferred source of information and party s/he votes for. If Democratic Party (PD) voters are especially likely to read newspapers (34.5%) and People of Freedom voters are especially likely to rely on television (26.3%), then M5s voters (42.5%) are more likely than those voting for other parties to use the internet to obtain information. This makes them more than twice as likely as PD voters (20%) to do so, the PD being in second place in terms of the proportion of its voters who rely on the medium.

14. A period of 45 days from 10 January 2013 to 24 February 2013. The elections were held on Sunday 24 and Monday 25 February 2013 following the dissolution of Parliament on 22 December 2012, four months before the natural end of its term.

15. The data were collected by international relations graduate, Pietro Iraci Cappuccinello.

16. The first data collection period runs from 16 May 2015 to 2 December 2015 (21,821 tweets), the second from 1 July 2017 to 1 February 2018 (27,189 tweets).

17. We applied the Clauset, Newman and Moore algorithm, that is, the basic version (however, the three algorithms available in Nodexl operate very similarly).

18. The civic and political profiles of MPs have been obtained from previous research into their Facebook profiles and page preferences: for each M5s candidate, before the end of the election campaign, we collected data concerning preferences (likes) covering musical tastes and civic and political participation.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rossana Sampugnaro

Rossana Sampugnaro (Ph.D. in Sociology) is Assistant professor in Political Sociology. Her research interests lie in the fields of in political communication, political parties and Italian politics. She is a member of the Scientific Committee of the Italian Political Communication Association (ASSOCOMPOL) and of the editorial boards of the journals, Partecipazione e Conflitto and Comunicazione Politica.

Simona Gozzo

Simona Gozzo (Ph.D. in Sociology and Methods of the Social Sciences) is Assistant professor in Sociology. Her research interests are focused on data analysis techniques, including network analysis, mixed methods, textual analysis, big data and the analysis of large datasets. Her most recent work has focused on the topics of social cohesion, integration and participation. She is a member of the editorial board of the journal SocietàMutamentoPolitica, and she is a member of the scientific committee of the methodology section of the (Italian Sociology Association).