📢 in our #NewIssue (30.3)
The analysis by @davevitto.bsky.social, S. Rojon, J.-B. Pilet and E. Paulis uncover distinctive associations between governing preferences and propensity to vote for the main Italian parties
✳️⏳NOW #FreeAccess! Read & download here:
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
You can find the paper here: muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/articl...
All in all, citizens appear to be challenging the traditional chain of delegation: voters → parties → parliament → executive.
This signals dissatisfaction with how representation currently works.
🪔Citizens seem open to alternative ways of organizing representation.
Interesting heterogeneous effects:
👉 Trustful citizens are relatively more favorable to responsible party politicians.
👉 Citizens with populist attitudes prefer instructed delegates—and, to a lesser extent, technocratic profiles.
Main results:
1 Citizens prefer politicians who represent the will of the people and are not bound to political parties.
2 Politicians accountable to parties or parliament are evaluated less positively.
3 Non-partisan delegates of “the people” are often more attractive to citizens across countries.
💡We compare preferences for six ideal-typical paradigms:
• Responsible party
• Independent politician
• Partisan delegate
• Instructed delegate
• Technopol
• Pure technocrat
Each captures a different logic of accountability & decision-making.
🚩 We study whether citizens meaningfully distinguish between different representational paradigms embodied by politicians.
Using a conjoint experiment in 15 Western & Eastern European countries, we test whether these role conceptions matter for candidate choice.
New paper out for @worldpolitics.bsky.social
Citizens’ Views of Decision-Makers’ Roles: A Conjoint Experiment in Fifteen Countries.
How do citizens want politicians to behave once in office? Not just who they are or what they believe—but how they represent.
👇
The January issue of WP is online! muse.jhu.edu/issue/56279 Read articles from Nikhar Gaikwad, @kolbyhanson.bsky.social, & @aliz-toth.bsky.social; Tim Vlandas; Tomothy Hellwig & Tonya K. Dodez; @davevitto.bsky.social, Sébastien Rojon, & @jbpilet.bsky.social; and Handi Li. #autocracy #democracy
Survey of 5,000 Italians: people’s preferences for who should govern mirror European patterns 🌍. Preference for experts is linked to left-wing votes, not right-wing 🧠 . Preference for empowering citizens is not consistently linked to support for populist parties 🗳️
🧵 New paper out in South European Society and Politics
Are citizens’ preferences for who should govern linked to how they vote?
Together with Sébastien Rojon, @jbpilet.bsky.social, and Emilien Paulis, we explore this question in the Italian context.
DM if interested in a free copy!
7/ 📄 Want to read more?
Check out the full paper here: doi.org/10.1080/2324...
If you’d like the PDF, drop me a DM.
6/ 🗳️ Big picture
Trust in science isn’t just about policy, but about politics: RRPs can weaponize distrust in science—but mainly when in opposition.
Lega (gvt) vs. FdI (opposition): during covid and Draghi gvt, trust in science was main difference btw the two electorates.
5/ 📊 What did we find?
✅ Trust in science strongly correlated w/ positive government evaluations
✅ Trust in science reduces the likelihood of voting for radical right parties—but mainly when those parties were in opposition.
In short: trust in science = political dividing line
4/ Why Italy?
Italy was hit hard by COVID-19 and had a unique political situation:
→ Radical right Lega joined the pro-science Draghi gov’t.
→ Radical right Fratelli d’Italia stayed in opposition, fiercely criticizing restrictions.
Perfect for testing politicization dynamics.
3/ 🔑 The Research
Using original survey data from Italy, we tested two key hypotheses:
1️⃣ Trust in science correlated w/ support for governments enforcing restrictions.
2️⃣ Propensity to vote for radical right populist parties in gvt and in opposition differs based on gvt status
2/ 📌 The Context
COVID-19 was unprecedented: never before had experts been so prominent in shaping policy in Europe. But with this prominence came politicization—especially from radical right parties who opposed restrictions.
1/ 🧵 How does trust in science shape politics?
As scientists played central roles during COVID-19, their involvement fueled both trust and backlash. Our new paper explores how trust in science influenced voting behavior and government support during the pandemic. 👇
🚩Recently out for Contemporary Italian Politics
"Trust in science during the pandemic: an ideological fracture or just a matter of government vs opposition?"
Co-authored with x-less Davide Angelucci.
A small thread.
#italianpolitics #Radicalright #FDI #Lega #trust #science
🚩Few days left to apply for this CfP!
Panel title: Disentangling Causal Effects in the Face of Challenges to Liberal Democracy.
If you want more info about the panel, just drop me a message or send me an email at davide.vittori@ulb.be
🚩I will co-chair with Leonardo Puleo the panel "Disentangling Causal Effects in the Face of Challenges to Liberal Democracy" at the next Italian Political Science Association conference in Naples.
📅Deadline: 🔜25 May
📄+ Info here: sisp.it/convegno2025...
📄Submission: sisp.it/en/conference