Ogni tanto è sano uscire dal mondo in cui si è immersi e vedersi da fuori. The digital party è un libro che racconta i nuovi fenomeni dell’intreccio tra politica e digitale, inclusa l’ascesa del Movimento cinque stelle.
On 18 May 2018, the registered members of the Movimento 5 Stelle (Five Star Movement) were convoked via email to participate in an important online consultation due to take place from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. A window was created on the main dashboard of the Rousseau participatory portal to vote on the ‘government contract’, the agreement that had long been negotiated with Lega, the right-wing populist party of Matteo Salvini. There were 44,796 people who participated in the consultation, with 42,274 voting yes and 2,522 voting no: an overwhelming 94 per cent majority in favour of the agreement. Luigi Di Maio celebrated the vote on Il Blog delle Stelle, the official party house organ, as a democratic consecration of the Contract for the Government of Change and the pact with Salvini. A few weeks later, eventually the Five Star Movement and Lega formed a coalition government which was dubbed by the press ‘yellow-green’, or carioca, because of the colours of the two parties (yellow for Five Star and green for Lega).
How was it possible for an ‘internet party’ that had long been ridiculed by the mainstream media in Italy for its naïve techno-utopianism and dilettantism to enter government less than 10 years after its foundation? What led it to enjoy such a widespread popularity in the Italian electorate? What kind of political organisation and model of democracy does this formation put forward? And is the case of the Five Star Movement an Italian exception or also an indication of what is happening in other countries?
Molto interessante poi la collana in cui si colloca: Digital barricades.