Cosmos
The Centre on Social Movement Studies
Journal Article - 2022
Author: Andrea Pirro
The first year of COVID-19 confirmed the standing of the populist radical right in Italy. While sitting in opposition at the national level, Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy and Matteo Salvini's League shared common criticism of the Conte II government but experienced diverging trajectories in terms of popularity. The first had enjoyed growing support since… moreJournal Article - 2022
Author: Manuela Caiani e Guglielmo Meardi
The growing interest in the populist phenomenon worldwide, which previously was centred on its protest and opposition functions, now includes its role in government. As a result in the recent years, research has shifted from the study of populism as an opposition, anti-system movement to the question of what populist governance and populist policies are.… moreJournal Article - 2022
Author: Andrea Pirro & Paul Taggart
The populist use of tropes such as conspiracy theories plays an increasingly important role in their politics. Populism and conspiracy theories present a number of common traits – Manichaeanism, a sense of victimhood, and an ambivalence towards representative politics – and populists’ use of conspiracy theories is politically purposeful. Targeting a conspiring elite serves to… moreJournal Article - 2022
Author: Lorenzo Bosi, Lorenzo Zamponi
Le molte forme di solidarietà e mutualismo dal basso che si sono manifestate in questi anni, sia nel contesto della crisi economica sia in risposta alla pandemia di Covid-19, dalle grandi organizzazioni sociali alle occupazioni abitative, dai gruppi di acquisto solidale alle fabbriche recuperate, passando per i centri sociali e le sperimentazioni di welfare dal… moreJournal Article - 2022
Author: Chiara Milan
The article contributes to the urban studies literature and the study of social movements in divided societies by disclosing the distinctive features and mobilizing potential that the notion of urban commons retains in a war-torn society with a socialist legacy. Specifically, it investigates how urban space and urban commons are reclaimed in a post-conflict and… moreJournal Article - 2022
Author: Manuela Caiani & Paolo Graziano
The article explores the consequences of the increasing presence of both left- and right-wing populist parties in government, critically reflecting on the recent scholarship on the topic, underlining promising venues for future research and outlining a conceptual framework which constitutes the background of this special issue entitled ‘Populism in Power and its Consequences’. Our main… moreJournal Article - 2021
Author: Manuela Caiani & Manès Weisskircher
For many left-wing and liberal social movement activists, support for ‘Europe’ and opposition to a ‘nationalist’ turn has become a key motivation for their activism. Paradoxically, however, their opponents at the other end of the political spectrum, far-right activists, also positively identify as European. This article analyses one of the key developments in the contemporary… moreJournal Article - 2021
Author: Manuela Caiani
In this article, we explore radical right mobilisation beyond the electoral arena, looking at its characteristics and forms, as well as intensity and related factors (such as the preferred targets and issues). Within a comparative study of four country cases in Central and Eastern Europe the analysis is carried out by drawing on two novel… moreJournal Article - 2021
Author: Manuela Caiani & Enrico Padoan & Bruno Marino
Journal Government and Opposition (OnLineFirst) Abstract In this article, we focus on the candidate selection processes of Podemos in Spain and the Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S – Five Star Movement) in Italy, processes which are related to intra-party democracy. With a mixed-methods approach (including novel data from the expert survey PoPES, 31 semi-structured interviews with… moreJournal Article - 2021
Author: Paul Taggart & Andrea Pirro
This contribution is conceived as a resource on the state of European populist parties before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. It reports on cross-national comparative findings generated by data collected from 30 European countries as to the state of populist parties in one calendar year (2019) and provides an extensive qualitative overview of the… moreJournal Article - 2026
Journal Article - 2026
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Edited Volume - 2026
Journal Article - 2026
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Monograph - 2025
Journal Article - 2025
Journal Article - 2025
