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Cosmos

The Centre on Social Movement Studies

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Populism in power: Consequences on Policies, Politics, Polity

TEAM

Manuela Caiani and Tiago Carvalho

START YEAR 2018

END YEAR 2020

The research project will focus on the consequences of populism, a topic still partly neglected in populist research, but increasingly important since populist parties are assuming more stable (and governmental) positions all across Europe. The consequences of populism when in power (i.e. the impact of populists’ success) can be studied on several domains, including: the party system and institutions’ changes, the impact on civil society and media, as well as various policy outcomes. This is what we will also do in this project, inserting the Italian case (a ‘unique’ case in Europe having two populist parties in government) in a comparative European perspective. The project with adopt a methodological triangulation strategy, using qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques and methods (including original surveys, individual and meso-organizational interviews, formalized content analysis of documents, as well as QCA).

External partners: Paolo Graziano (University of Padua), Mattia Zulianello (University of Birmingham)

                                  

FUNDING

Various partners (OCIS – Easy Care, Internal SNS Fund for Annual Research – 2018/2019)

 

News

Publications

Edited Volume - 2026

Conspiracism and Political Conflict

Manuela Caiani, Marco Solinas, Hans-Jorg Trenz

Monograph - 2025

Free download for "Contentious Politics of Global Health Movements"

Donatella Della Porta, Stella Christou

Journal Article - 2025

Communication creates partial organization: A comparative analysis of the organizing practices of two climate action movements, Youth for Climate and Fridays for Future Italy

Marco Deseriis, Lorenzo Zamponi, Diego Ceccobelli
This article focuses on a neglected aspect of the climate action movement Fridays for Future, namely, the relationship between its mediated communication practices and its early organizational processes. Drawing from a strand of organizational communication that underscores the constitutive dimension of communication to organizing processes, we analyze the significance of mediatized leadership and networked communication for the foundation and early development of two national chapters of Fridays for Future: Youth for Climate (YFC) Belgium and Fridays for Future Italy (FFFI).

Journal Article - 2025

Power resources, territory and labour conflicts in the logistic sector

Donatella Della Porta, Marco Antonelli