Overview

Personalisation is the most relevant political phenomenon of our time. After the decline of structural and ideological foundations of Western democracies, a radical shift from collective to individual actors and institutions has occurred in several political systems. From the one hand political leaders have gained centrality on the democratic scene, as a consequence of both a more direct, sometimes plebiscitary, relationship with citizens, and a more direct control of the executive administration. From the other hand a process of fragmentation occurs at the mass level, where electoral volatility has strongly increased and especially after the spread of social media each citizen elaborates his convictions in the self-referential autonomy of the digital networks. This book analyses the consequences of personalisation of political leaders on democratic government, by asking whether it is possible to keep together demos and kratos in a post-particratic context. It explores topics such as governmental decrees, Trump-governance, and analysis of the coronavirus outbreak. The book brings to the fore the study of political personalization in relation to some of the most important crises and trends in modern politics. It does so offering comparative insights, exploring how political leaders govern in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Hungary.

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9783110724714

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Fortunato Musella is Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Naples Federico II. He has been a visiting scholar at the Cornell University (Usa), visiting professor at the Sussex European Institute (UK) and Leuphana Universität (Germany), professor of Political Concepts for the Phd courses of the Scuola Superiore Normale di Pisa (2010-2017), and in Accademia Aeronautica militare (2018-2020). He has served in the Italian University Council (CUN) and in the Editorial Board of the Italian Political Science Review. Currently he is in the Executive Board of Federica WebLearning, Center for Innovation and Dissemination of Distance Learning. He is also Principal Investigator for the national project Monocratic Government. The Impact of Personalisation on Contemporary Political Regimes, financed by the Ministery of University and Research (PRIN 2020-2023). His main research interests include the study of government, presidential politics, political parties, concept analysis and digital politics. Among his recent publications, the volumes Governi monocratici. La svolta presidenziale nelle regioni italiane (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009), Il premier diviso. Italia tra presidenzialismo e parlamentarismo (Milan, Bocconi, 2012), Political Leaders beyond Party Politics (London, Palgrave, 2017). Recently he published the book, bestseller in its category, Il Principe digitale (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2019), dedicated to investigate changes introduced by digital technologies in politics. He has written eighty book chapters and articles in peer review journal such as European Political Science Review, Representation, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Italian Political Science Review, Contemporary Italian Politics, Polis, Quaderni di Scienza Politica.

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