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ABSTRACT
The article argues that the persistent high level of dissatisfaction vis-à-vis parties comes from a mismatch between public expectations and parties’ performances. The present lack of confidence in parties is not attributable to failings in terms of representation or the fulfilment of policy promises. A more subtle process is apparently in operation. Parties are, rather, criticized and even despised for the image they and their representatives project, an image far removed from what people expect. Public opinion is, in fact, affected by what Zigmunt Bauman called retrotopia, that is, nostalgia for the mass party. The idealization of that type of party, still so entrenched in the European people, has caught parties in a trap: as they cannot return that model whose premises no longer exist, they have introduced some changes; but they have moved in a direction that is the opposite of expectations as they have acquired more and more resources. In this way, they have heightened the image of a privileged, self-assured and uncaring organization, distant from ordinary people. The contrast between the idealized vision of the mass party and the parties’ present reality has caused the unremitting loss of confidence in them
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Correction Statement
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Notes
1. The literature on deliberative democracy is too large to be discussed here. Below are some references restricted to the relationship between deliberative mechanisms and the political party: Invernizzi and Wolkenstein (2017); Wolkenstein (Citation2016); Biale and Ottonelli (Citation2019).
2. This topic has attracted growing attention in recent years: See Morel and Qvortrup (Citation2017); Sintomer (Citation2011); Urbinati and Vandelli (Citation2019); Vandamme (Citation2018).
3. The term is used here with reference to Durkheim’s famous distinction between organic and mechanical solidarity, originally presented in his De la division du travail social (1902).
4. The most notable exception to the rule is, at present, the Dutch Pvv, whose only member is its founder, Geert Wilders.
5. In the same way, see the distinctive analysis by Bour (Citation2018) on the use and diffusion of the ‘recomandation’ in France.
6. Think of the celebrated interpretation of the role of the Tiers état on the eve of the French revolution, when the pamphlet by Emmanuel Joseph Sieyés stated that the Tiers état had to represent the totality of Frenchmen.
7. For an overview see Torcal (Citation2017), and, more specifically, Grossman and Sauger (Citation2017), Cheurfa and Chanvril (Citation2019) and Morin and Perron (Citation2020) for France; Segatti (Citation2006) and Ipsos (Citation2019) for Italy, and Lapuente et al. (Citation2018) for Spain.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Piero Ignazi
Piero Ignazi is Professor of Comparative Politics at the University of Bologna, Department of Political and Social Science.
Recent books:
- Italian Military Operations Abroad. Just Don’t Call It War (with G.Giacomello and F. Coticchia) Parlgrave-Macmillan, 2012.
- Forza senza legittimità. Il vicolo cieco dei partiti. Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2012
- Vent’anni dopo. La parabola del berlusconismo Bologna, Il Mulino, 2014.
- I Partiti italiani dal 1946 al 2018. Bologna, Il Mulino, 2018.
- Party and democracy: The Uneven Road to Party Legitimacy. Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017 (Italian translation: Partito e Demcorazia. Bologna, Il Mulino, 2019; French new edition: Parti et Démocratie. Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 2021; Spanish new edition: Paritdo y Democracia. Madrid, Alianza, 2021).