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Attitudes and opinions of Italian middle-level elites in the new millennium. Adaptation, innovation, or persistence?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2017

Paola Bordandini  and
Rosa Mulé
Paola Bordandini
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Rosa Mulé*
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

The literature on party politics has generally conceived of party change as party adaptation. Building on the theories of institutional change based on critical juncture analysis, our work contributes to the literature in two ways. Theoretically, by unpacking the concept of party change in three dimensions: adaptation, innovation, and persistence. This multidimensionality has been unduly neglected in the literature, too exclusively focussed on party adaptation. Empirically, the article analyses whether the attitudes and opinions of middle-level elites reveal adaptation, innovation, or persistence in their belief system at the beginning of the third millennium. Drawing upon a unique data set of national party delegates of 15 Italian political parties, regression results suggest that high entry barriers in party organizations may hinder Schumpeterian innovation.

Keywords

party changeadaptationinnovationparty middle-level elitebelief system
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 48 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 23 - 42
Copyright
© Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2017 

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Bordandini and Mulé Dataset

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http://dx.doi.org/10.7910/DVN/CPYALE
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