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Democratic vision and online participatory spaces in the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle

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Abstract

Digital technologies have been considered as generating new opportunities to enhance democratic politics. However, political parties have generally been latecomers in appropriating digital media in their every day life. The case of the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S) represents an interesting example of innovative use of digital technologies in politics. Adopting a mixed-method research design, this article contrasts the democratic vision of the M5S with its online participatory platform. First, the discursive production of its leaders on democracy is analysed and complemented with an examination of a law proposal focusing on direct democracy. The core elements of the M5S’ democratic conception are identified in a criticism of representative democracy and the elaboration of a cyberutopian narrative. Second, the concrete realization of democratic ideals through online instruments of participation is taken into consideration. Sixty-five online ballots and 326 discussions of draft laws that took place on the Rousseau platform between 2012 and 2017 are critically inspected and discussed, singling out explanations of a continuing decline in participation over time.

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Fig. 1

Source: Own elaboration on data provided on http://www.ilblogdellestelle.it

Fig. 2

Source: Own elaboration of data collected on the Rousseau platform (https://rousseau.movimento5stelle.it). Histograms indicate the total number of comments to the laws in a specific month (0–12,000 scale), while the dark line refers to the average number of comments by law in the same month (0–4,500 scale)

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Notes

  1. In January 2018, Grillo eventually separated his personal blog (www.beppegrillo.it) from the ‘blog of the stars’ (www.ilblogdellestelle.it) that until then simply mirrored the contents of the former. Since then, all contents related to the M5S that were published on Grillo’s blog have moved to the archives of the official blog of the Movement. No record of the previous activity is currently available on the blog of its funder.

  2. Percentages displayed in Fig. 1 have been calculated on the basis of the data provided on the blog (31,162 users in December 2012, 48,292 in April 2013, 80,383 in January 2014, 85,408 in February 2014, 87,656 in June 2014, and 135,023 in October 2016). When data on active electorate were not provided, I used the last available data unless more updated information had been revealed by the leaders in public rallies or public interviews (i.e., 124,000 in September 2015 and 130,000 in October 2015).

  3. http://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2013/03/circonvenzione_6.html.

  4. http://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2013/09/lintervento_di_casaleggio_a_cernobbio_video.html.

  5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2Q-vg0QeBY&feature=youtu.be.

  6. Other consultations took place regarding regional and municipal issues. In what follows I focus exclusively on national consultations.

  7. I.e., not receiving the email inviting them to participate in the online consultations, not being recognized as registered users by the online system (which means they could not log in and vote), or, on the contrary, possibility to vote twice or more.

  8. https://www.ilblogdellestelle.it/2017/03/votazione_la_lista_per_le_comunali_di_genova.html.

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Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this article has been presented at the 2016 International Political Science Association (IPSA) conference in Poznan and at the 2016 conference of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP) in Milan. I am particularly grateful for useful comments to Luigi Ceccarini, Javier Gil Garcia, Paolo Graziano, and two anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Department of Political and Social Sciences, Scuola Normale Superiore, Palazzo Strozzi, 50123, Florence, Italy

    Lorenzo Mosca

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  1. Lorenzo Mosca
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Correspondence to Lorenzo Mosca.

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Mosca, L. Democratic vision and online participatory spaces in the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle. Acta Polit 55, 1–18 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41269-018-0096-y

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