02/2020 – La pandemia, la politica e il mondo globale dopo il Covid-19

Abstracts

Lucia Montesanti, Francesca Veltri, Five Star Élites: Changes and Persistence in the Parliamentary Political Class

At its origins, the M5s wanted to differentiate strongly himself from the other parties, both at the structural-organizational and communicative level, presenting contents close to classic aspects of populism declined in a digital key. Today, however, it tends to come closer to the traditional party form, focusing on the role of the political leader. One of the main objectives declared by the M5s is the replacement of the political class at all institutional levels. The aim of this research is to understand if and how this political force has changed the socio-demographic characteristics of its elected representatives between 2013 and 2018. We also try to understand if it is possible speak of an elite in transformation, referring to the elitist theory classical and contemporary. In this regard the profiles of the elected M5s in the last two political elections will be compared first, and subsequently with those of their colleagues. In this way, it will also be possible to highlight the degree of turnover and any changes with respect to gender, age, educational qualifications and profession, whose consequences will be analyzed at the political level.

Keywords: Five Star Movement (M5s); populism; political class; elitist theory; democracy; italian party system

Stefano De Luca, Hic sunt leones. Democracy in the Age of Social media, Big Data and Artifical Intelligence

Around 30 years ago, the fall of the European communist regimes prompted Francis Fukuyama to declare the end of history, predicting the universal spreading of liberal democracy and the fading of ideological tensions; Giovanni Sartori stated that instead, history was on the verge of a new beginning, based on premises that could not even be imagined: among those, the transformation of the homo sapiens into homo videns was notably the most threatening to liberal democracy. During those same years, from 1989 to 1993, the World Wide Web was in the process of its development by Berners Lee: its most prominent feature, namely the possibility of a mass access to the Internet, along with the swirling technological innovations by Silicon Valley would later cause disruptions of the highest degree. This article analyzes the principal causes for this transformation – the 2.0 Web, social media and the Big Data/Artificial Intelligence combination. The aim is to demonstrate how political effects have often been the opposite of the expected outcomes, not reinforcing but rather undermining the fundamental principles of liberal democracy.

Key-words: Fukuyama, Sartori, Democracy, Web, Social media, Big Data, Intelligenza Artificiale. Web-democracy

Antonio Campati, The Équipe Power. The Staff of the Political Leader

The gradual importance assumed by political leaders in contemporary democracies has made the «nucleus» of collaborators who assist them emerge more and more evident: the équipe of the power. It is composed of key figures for the conquest of leadership positions and for the career of the political leader they assist. Over the centuries, at least from Machiavelli onwards, these special team have become increasingly important. Through the analyzes of Gaetano Mosca and Gianfranco Miglio, the essay tries to provide a reflection on the different types of «political help» and on the crucial role that this team plays in the current «crisis» of representative democracy.

Keywords: leadership; power équipe; Gaetano Mosca; Gianfranco Miglio; elitist theory; representative democracy

Li Lifan, The Turbulence and Collaboration between China and EU and the Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic

High-speed expansion and the many economic crisis in the past 20 years have caused the EU’s major difficulties on its development. The new European Commission will face the multi-level dilemma of promoting public policy and overcome its original cohesion, and develops new relations with China. This article attempts to compare traditional and non-traditional crisis involving economics, finance, Brexit, refugees, populism, regional security, etc.; the author also takes a close look at the difficulties and challenges of China-EU cooperation. Taking the Covid-19 pandemic as the leading task force, and giving global public health governance as an opportunity to analyze the future trend of Sino-European relations and how to get rid of the existing predicament, the Author shall advocate the establishment of a Sino-European relationship with a foundation of trust and convergence of interests.

Keywords: China; European Union; Covid-19; economic cooperation; regional security; sino-european relations