Giuliano Bobba

Different Types of Right-Wing Populist Discourse in Government and Opposition: The Case of Italy

Abstract Does right-wing populist discourse change when parties move from opposition to government? How do different ideological types of right-wing populist parties express this discourse? Through an analysis of the Lega Nord and Forza Italia/Popolo della Libertà between 2006 and 2013, we find that while the switch to office does bring some changes, the main elements of their populist discourse remain largely the same. We also show how their respective emphases on ‘elites’ and ‘others’ distinguish the parties: FI/PDL focuses overwhelmingly on ‘elites’ while the LN places similar emphasis on both ‘elites’ and ‘others’.

Populism and the Gender Gap: Comparing Digital Engagement with Populist and Non-populist Facebook Pages in France, Italy, and Spain:

This paper clarifies whether and to what extent populist communication could drive different gender-oriented reactions. We adopted an original research design intending Facebook as a natural environment where investigating the interaction between social media users and populist and non-populist parties. Our case selection considers three countries falling into the pluralist polarized media system: France, Italy, and Spain. A human content analysis was carried out on a sample of 2,235 Facebook posts published during thirty days in 2016 by the four main parties/leaders in each country. An original algorithm allowed to identify the gender of users liking each message. We tested whether men tend more to provide likes to messages posted by populist parties, messages published by radical populists, messages containing populist contents, and different components of populist messages. Findings confirm the existence of a gender-oriented reaction to populism: Men tend to support populist actors and parties on Facebook more than women do, by providing likes to their content. Yet the difference in gender gap between radical and moderate parties is not significant. We also found that the antielite component of populist discourse obtains more likes by male Facebook users. This pattern is common for both populist and non-populist parties.

How do Eurosceptic parties and economic crisis affect news coverage of the European Union? Evidence from the 2014 European elections in Italy

ABSTRACT This article aims at understanding to what extent the presence of Eurosceptic actors, along with the effects of the economic crisis, have affected the news coverage on Europe and the European Union during the 2014 EP election campaign in Italy. We rely on an original dataset based on content analysis of the 50 days prior to the 2014 EP elections in four mainstream newspapers (n = 2,499) and four mainstream TV newscasts (n = 519). Our findings show that, while Italian mainstream media covered EU issues through a more positive frame compared to domestic political issues, Eurosceptic parties and economic issues, especially in relation to the austerity policies supported by the EU, were the two explanatory factors that clearly affected the coverage of the EU.

Partito personale o personalizzato? L’evoluzione del Partito Democratico: 2007-2015

In recent decades, the process of the personalization of politics has become increasingly central in liberal democracies. This article provides a theoretical framework for evaluating the level of personalization of a political party, focusing on different dimensions such as party organization, parliamentary behaviour, communication. The hypothesis, that will be discussed, proposes to distinguish between two models of party: the personal party and the personalized party. These two party models are both characterized by the centrality of political leaders and personalities, but they differ as regards their organization and communication both internally and externally. By analysing the case of the Italian Democratic Party, the article enable to better understand the evolution of this party and to evaluate the heuristic capacity of the theoretical framework in relation to the broader debate on the changes of political parties in contemporary western democracies.