Mario Quaranta

Research Fellow

Mario Quaranta obtained a PhD in Political Science (cum laude) in 2013 from the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane, Florence (Italy). He is currently a post-doctoral fellow at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore.

Previously, he was post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Political Science at LUISS University, Roma (Italy), where he still teaches “Political science” (BA) and “Quantitative methods for political research” (PhD).

He was visiting fellow at the Center for the Study of Democracy, University of California (USA), and at the Department of Sociology, Universiteit Utrecht (NL). He has been involved in several research projects on quality of democracy, political participation, public opinion, and collection of survey data.

His articles have appeared, among others, in Current Sociology, Information, Communication & Society, International Political Science Review, Electoral Studies, European Political Science Review, Social Science Research, Social Indicators Research and West European Politics. His book “Political protest in Western Europe: Exploring the role of context in political action” was published by Springer in 2015.

Research interests: Comparative political behavior and public opinion, political participation, youth, political socialization, and attitudes towards democracy

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News

08/06/2017

Call for Papers - Cosmos Conference "The Contentious Politics of Higher Education. Student Movements in Late Neoliberalism"

The Centre on Social Movement Studies, directed by Professor Donatella Della Porta, calls for papers addressing the recent global wave of student protests for a two-days conference to bel held in Florence, at the Institute of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Scuola Normale Superiore (SNS), on 15-16 November 2017.

19/05/2017

Video available for the International Conference – Beyond Borders: Refugees and Struggles in Europe Mobilization, Solidarity and Political Challenges in the Long Summer of Migration

Watch the video of the International Conference – Beyond Borders, which was held at Palazzo Strozzi on May 12, 2017

19/05/2017

Marco Deseriis wins Best Paper Award at the Cedem17 Conference for e-Democracy & Open Government

Dr. Marco Deseriis, Marie Curie Fellow and Research Fellow at Cosmos, has won the Best Paper Award at the Cedem17 Conference for e-Democracy & Open Government (Danube University, Krems Au Donau, Austria)

Publications

Journal Article - 2017

The Electoral Success of the Radical Left: Explaining the Least Likely Case of the Communist Party in Graz

Manès Weisskircher

Recently, scholars have shown a growing interest in radical left parties (RLPs). In terms of electoral success, the rise of the KPÖ Graz, the Communist Party in Austria’s second biggest city, represents perhaps the most counterintuitive case in Western Europe. This analysis shows how the party has managed to ‘own’ the issue of housing and to exploit local political opportunities in order to be electorally successful. The findings point to the importance of agency and the subnational level for RLPs, and highlight more general questions in the study of this party family.

Journal Article - 2017

Non-deliberative politics in deliberative democracy: distinct approaches for different actors

Andrea Felicetti

In this paper Andrea Felicetti first illustrates the main ideas of the systemic turn, explores the distinction between ‘deliberative’ and ‘non-deliberative’ politics and investigates the main arguments justifying non-deliberative politics. Then, he builds upon these arguments to shed new light on the relationship between deliberative and non-deliberative politics. He identifies three distinctive actors in deliberative systems (political institutions, empowered agents, and public space actors). Finally, he argues that deliberative democrats should adopt three different approaches (intensive, moderate, and free) in order to assess whether the use of non-deliberative politics by each of these actors is legitimate.