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

06/10/2017

Open Democracy Post - "The streets will always be ours" - Catalonia, a referendum from below

Although some still conceive of the referendum as launched by a pro-independence vanguard, the elite story falls short of explaining the resilient participation of a large part of Catalan civil society. This post at Open Democracy addresses this issue from a different angle.

24/09/2017

New Publication Out - "Social movements and referendums from below. Direct democracy in the neoliberal crisis"

A timely publication to shed light on the link between social movements that formed as a consequence of the 2008 financial crash and the referendums' dynamic and results.

25/08/2017

Donatella Della Porta con Yanis Varoufakis alla 13esima conferenza ESA

Wednesday, August 30th (8pm-9.30pm) professor della Porta, who directs the Center on Social Movement Studies(Cosmos), will dialogue with Yanis Varoufakis, Greek Minister of Finance during the first Tsipras government, about the future of Europe and the social consequences of neoliberal economies

Publications

Monograph - 2018

Social Movements and Civil War : When Protests for Democratization Fail

Donatella della Porta, Teije Hidde Donker , Bogumila Hall , Emin Poljarevic

This book investigates the origins of civil wars which emerge from failed attempts at democratization. The main aim of this volume is to develop a theoretical explanation of the conditions under which and the mechanisms through which social movements' struggles for democracy ends up in civil war.

Monograph - 2017

Social movements and referendums from below. Direct democracy in the neoliberal crisis

Donatella Della Porta, Francis O'Connor, Martin Portos and Anna Subirats Ribas

Out now "Social movements and referendum from below", the first book that bridges the gap between social movement studies and research on direct democracy. It draws on social movement theory to understand the nature of popular mobilisation in referendums using unique case studies such as the referendum on independence in Scotland, the consultations on independence in Catalonia, the Italian referendum on water, the referendum on the Troika proposals in Greece and the referendum on the debt repayment in Iceland.

Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies