1,721,012 research outputs found
Online Networks of the Italian and German Extreme Right
No full textThis article applies instruments of social network analysis to a study of communication networks within the Italian and German extremist right. Web links between organizational websites are used as a proxy. Indeed, extremist groups increasingly use and abuse the Internet for their propaganda and their recruitment, and also for their internal communication. The analysis includes both political parties and non-party organizations, even violent groups. In a macro-, micro-, and meso-analysis, the various specificities of the two national political sectors are demonstrated and linked to the offline reality. The Italian network appears to be very fragmented, highly diversified, and difficult to be coordinated (‘policephalous network’), whereas the German network is denser and much more concentrated on a few central actors (‘star structure’). These differences are mainly due to political opportunity structures in the two countries. Additionally, whereas the Italian network structure allows for the construction of a typology of sub-groups of organizations, the German communicative structure seems to be more erratic and less coordinated. The article also highlights the function of websites which are not related to any specific group. Indeed, these are of special importance for the far right as a political arena which is usually banned from the dominant societal discourses (if not even legally forbidden). Considering this, new modes of communication can be of greater use for extremist groups than for more traditional political actors. (author's abstract
Outsiders looking in and insiders looking out: A comparative study of newspaper coverage of Italian-German relationships in the 2013 elections
Get PDFWe conceptualise transnational political communication as an emerging phenomenon in globally connected polities, whereby public discourse in a country increasingly focuses on politics, policies, and political actors in other countries. There are two dimensions to transnationalisation: ‘outside-in’, when political communication focuses on the domestic politics of foreign countries, and ‘inside-out’, when foreign countries play a role in a country’s domestic public discourse. We apply this conceptual distinction to a study of newspaper coverage of the 2013 German and Italian elections in both countries. Based on a content analysis of 428 articles across six newspapers, we find that Germany received more, and more positive, coverage in the Italian press than Italy did in the German press. While the German press tended to be neutral and to cover Italy only as part of Italy’s own electoral politics, the Italian press intensely covered Germany during both the German and Italian elections. Articles in the inside-out mode of transnationalisation were more likely to discuss the interdependencies between the two countries, but those articles could only be found in the less powerful Italy, whereas they were nearly absent in the more powerful Germany
Protest and democracy
No full textThis introductory chapter presents the rationale and structure of the book. It refers to the central goal of the book, namely to investigate the ways in which interactions between citizens, social movements and a specific breed of political party – the so-called movement parties – influence democratic quality in times of crisis as during the recent years in Europe. The chapter also gives more information on the research project ProDem (“Protest and Democracy – How Movement Parties, Social Movements and Active Citizens Are Reshaping Europe”), financed by the Volkswagen Foundation which is the basis of this book.The research objectives are formulated, and the innovative character of the project is underlined. Furthermore, the structure of the book is introduced, and the collaboration activities with stakeholders are described
Mobilizing on the Extreme Right: Germany, Italy, and the United States
No full textResearch on the extreme right is rare, and the extreme right has even more rarely been analysed as a social movement. In this volume, the extreme right is compared in Italy, Germany, and the United States using concepts and methods developed in social movement studies. In particular, the book describes the discourse, action, and organizational structures of the extreme right, and explains these on the basis of the available discursive and political opportunities. Three main empirical methods are used in the research. Firstly, the frame analysis looks at the cognitive mechanisms that are relevant in influencing organizational and individual behaviour. Second, network analysis looks at the (inter-) organizational structural characteristics of right-wing organizations. Finally, protest event analysis allows for an empirical summary of the actions undertaken by right-wing extremists over the last decade. The substantive chapters address the organizational structure of the extreme right, their action repertoires, the framing of protest events, the definition of 'us', the struggle against modernity, old and new forms of racism, opposition to globalization, and populism. (author's abstract
The COVID-19 Crisis and the Reshaping of Multi-Level Governance in the European Union: A Paired Comparison of Germany and Italy
No full textThe outbreak of COVID-19 challenged the democratic governance and economic performance of EU member states. Most national governments implemented restrictions on social and economic life in order to mitigate the circulation of the Sars-CoV-2 virus; at the same time, the resulting economic costs were financed by a combination of national and common debts. Eventually, the combination of health, political, and economic crises prompted national political executives to find collective solutions to the emergency. This chapter assesses the linkage between national responses and EU policy outputs. To what extent do variations among countries’ policies account for the EU reaction? How did EU policy affect patterns of national political governance? The empirical analysis presents a paired comparison of Germany and Italy, which are introduced as illustrative cases. Overall, it suggests that the observed shift in EU policy from fiscal consolidation to debt mutualization was the indirect outcome of particular choices of national crisis management. Yet, states’ decision-making convergence at the EU level affected national political processes differently, depending on countries’ idiosyncrasies. The findings contribute to the debate about the interconnection between national responses to crises and EU policy
Standards of Good Practice in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) and Fuzzy-Sets
Get PDFComments most welcome! A German version of this article appears as: Schneider, Carsten Q.//Wagemann, Claudius (forthcoming): Standards guter Praxis in Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) und Fuzzy-Sets, Pickel, Susanne//Pickel
- …
