Abstract
This chapter is dedicated to the analysis of collective leadership in the Five Star Movement (M5S), which has been the most-voted party in Italy in the last two parliamentary elections. The empirical analysis of M5S is carried out through the analytical and theoretical framework presented in the previous theoretical chapters, emphasizing how both the genesis and the strategic choices of the party founders have affected the leadership structure of M5S up to now. More specifically, the chapter is divided into three parts: (1) the history of the party from its foundation to the current critical situation, with special attention to its peculiar organizational model and the internal distribution of power; (2) the analysis of the leadership structure through the different stages in the organizational development of M5S; (3) the discussion of the consequences of different configurations in the leadership structure on the electoral sustainability and organizational persistence of the party. The concluding remarks offer an overview of the main findings that have emerged from this case study.
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Notes
- 1.
In this context, by ‘digital revolution’ we mean, in particular, “the explosion of Internet services and applications spearheaded by social networking services” (Bailo, 2020: 33).
- 2.
In this sense, it is difficult to say who comes first, whether Grillo involved Casaleggio in his enterprise, or if it was the other way around. According to some scholars or political pundits, Grillo is just an “asset” for the web communication company owned by Casaleggio or, as Iacoboni (2018: 34) put it, the “patient zero” of Casaleggio Associates. In other viewpoints, the role of the comedian is considered of paramount importance since the “movement has been built, developed and directed by Beppe Grillo” (Biorcio & Natale, 2013: 77). Rather than trying to solve this ‘chicken or the egg dilemma’, in this chapter we shall treat both Grillo and Casaleggio as the co-leaders and co-founders of the M5S.
- 3.
For the same reasons, the M5S has been aptly described, regarding its technological infrastructure, as an “internet-fuelled party”, given its “reliance on the Web as a tool for organization, decision-making, communication, and identity-building (Mosca et al., 2015: 127; see also Mosca and Vaccari, 2013; Lanfrey, 2011). In a similar vein, Bennett et al. (2018: 12) include the M5S in the category of “connective parties”, that is, “organizations in which technology platforms and affordances are indistinguishable from, and replace, key components of brick and mortar organization and intra-party functions”.
- 4.
Another dimension that can be taken into consideration for the analysis of the political parties concerns their “primary emphases or orientations” (Wolinetz, 2002: 151). Accordingly, parties can be described as vote-seeking, policy-seeking and office-seeking. Since this dimension overlaps, to some extent, with both the ideological and organizational dimensions, we exclude it from the following analysis. In any case, in this perspective as well, the ‘hybrid’ nature of the M5S is seen, given its partial transformation from a purely policy-seeking party to a more office-seeking party with a strong vote-seeking attitude.
- 5.
A different perspective is provided by Vittori (2019: 45), according to whom in the formation of the M5S we “observe an expansion by penetration, that is, from the centre to the periphery […], it was the centre, Beppe Grillo’s blog and the Casaleggio Associates to support the structuration at the subnational level”.
- 6.
On the role of Beppe Grillo’s blog as the “central hub” or the “central node” in the network of protest movements widespread in Italy in the early 2000s, see De Rosa (2013: 130–131).
- 7.
The post-ideological posture of the M5S is also stressed by Casaleggio and Grillo (2011: 13), in line with their suggestion/prediction that the “new world will be post-ideological”.
- 8.
- 9.
- 10.
The reasons behind the choice of this name for the national events organized by the M5S are manifold: (a) V stands for Vaffanculo (fuck off), an insult directed especially at politicians and journalists; (b) V also recalls a famous graphic novel by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, V for Vendetta; (c) V-day also reminds the ‘D-day’ landing of the Allies in Normandy during World War II; and finally (d) V stands for ‘5’ in Roman numerals and refers to the five stars (water, environment, mobility, development, energy) that should inspire the political commitment of the M5S members.
- 11.
The role of Casaleggio has been acknowledged by Grillo himself when, in a post announcing the passing of the co-founder of the Movement, he stated that: “This morning Gianroberto Casaleggio, the co-founder of the Five Star Movement, passed away”. More in general, on the role of Casaleggio and his company in the formation/organization of the M5S, see also Becchi (2016), Iacoboni (2019), Biondo and Canestrari (2018, 2019), Morosini (2019).
- 12.
The M5S rejects the definition and the label of ‘party’ and prefers to present itself as non-party or a ‘non association’. As Art. 4 of the non-statute specifies, the Movement “is not a political party, nor is it intended that it should become one in the future”. The idea of having a ‘statute non-statute’ stems from the need to take a critical distance from all the categories of traditional party politics.
- 13.
In contrast to other political leaders, Grillo did not seek public visibility on television or in national newspapers. Actually, he adopted a mix-method strategy of ‘pre-modern’ and ‘post-modern’ electoral campaign, through which his old-style rallies in the squares of all Italian provinces were amplified by the Internet (mainly, his own blog). Nevertheless, these gatherings became, through a “skilfully executed communications strategy” and “a game of smoke and mirrors” (Bordignon & Ceccarini, 2019: 146), immediately newsworthy and part of national TV debates.
- 14.
Grillo’s 2013 election tour reached all the major Italian cities. The three events with the largest media impact, according to Bobba et al. (2013: 373) “were the rally in Turin (February 16), the one in Milan (February 19) and the final campaign rally held in Rome (February 22).
- 15.
On the formal aversion to the figure of a leader in the M5S and the tension between “a political movement with a strong ‘leaderist’ stamp” and its ideology that “professes an equally strong ‘leaderless’ nature”, see Vignati (2015a: 9–12).
- 16.
In that occasion, the previous ‘non-statute’ was replaced by a party statute to all effects. More importantly, the “control over the logo, the Rousseau Platform and the blog, rather than to Beppe Grillo alone, now goes to a new ‘5-Star Movement Association’ that replaces the 2012 body and envisages the election of the guarantor, but only from 2021, after Grillo’s ‘renewed’ four-year mandate” (Musso & Maccaferri, 2018: 13).
- 17.
Along with these two new political figures (the Guarantor and the political leader), the regulation also requires the formation of three further bodies: the Guarantee Committee (composed of Vito Crimi, Roberta Lombardi and Giovanni Cancelleri), the Board of Arbitrators (composed of the MPs Nunzia Catalfo, Paola Carinelli and Riccardo Fraccaro) and the Treasurer (Luigi Di Maio). Incidentally, if the creation of the Directorate in 2014 could be considered as a false start in the process of party institutionalization and routinization, the new organizational structure set up in late 2017 marked, instead, a significant step in that direction.
- 18.
By “zones of uncertainties”, a concept that Panebianco borrows from Crozier (1964), we refer to a source of organizational power that allows actors to make important decisions in areas of organizational unpredictability. Hence, those who are in control of the zones of uncertainty in the party organization “hold a trump card, a resource that is ‘spendable’ in the internal power games” (Panebianco, 1988: 33).
- 19.
In February 2021, after the fall of the second Conte cabinet, the M5S decided to support the new governing coalition headed by Mario Draghi.
- 20.
For instance, during a plenary session of the European Parliament the Liberals’ leader Guy Verhofstadt described Conte as “the puppet moved by Salvini and Di Maio”. A similar description was frequent in the Italian media. However, it is telling how the French newspaper, Le Figaro, entitled the news concerning the crisis and then the fall of the first Conte government: “Giuseppe Conte, a puppet turned into a puppeteer” (“Giuseppe Conte, un pantin devenu marionnettiste, 28 August 2019).
- 21.
After the resignation of Luigi Di Maio, Vito Crimi has been appointed as the acting ‘political leader’ of the M5S until the approval of the new ‘collegial leadership’ in early 2021.
- 22.
In addition to the changes introduced in the leadership structure, the party congress has also decided to strengthen their organizational roots at the local level, thereby setting aside the ‘post-bureaucratic’ principle on which it was originally based.
- 23.
In this new organizational context, the role that Giuseppe Conte will play within the M5S is still uncertain and unclear after his resignation as prime minister in February 2021. It is important to point out that, although formally approved by the party membership, the new Steering Committee of the M5S has not yet (as of June 2021) come into force.
- 24.
- 25.
This typology of leadership profiles was originally formulated by Rucht (2012: 110–111) for the analysis of social movement leaders.
- 26.
The united trajectory of Grillo and Casaleggio has been strengthened also by the fact that both co-leaders did not seek public office and did not participate in national elections. Since the beginning, they remained ‘outsider leaders’, controlling the party from outside public office.
- 27.
It is important to stress that Grillo’s centrality in the communication strategy of the M5S also originated from the critical attitude of the party toward the traditional media. Therefore, going on television as talk-show guests was completely forbidden for both candidates and elected members of the Movement. This internal policy lasted until approximately 2015–2016 and, after that period, many high-profile M5S representatives became “veritable stars of talk shows” (Bordignon & Ceccarini, 2019: 148).
- 28.
An even more important role was played by Grillo in early 2021, after the termination of the second government led by Giuseppe Conte and the decision to support the new cabinet headed by Mario Draghi.
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Campus, D., Switek, N., Valbruzzi, M. (2021). Five Star Movement: From Dual to Multimember Leadership. In: Collective Leadership and Divided Power in West European Parties. Palgrave Studies in Political Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75255-2_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75255-2_6
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