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Roads to Rome: how visions of elitism and pluralism shake up the goal repertoire of electoral competition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2025

Davide Angelucci Open the ORCID record for Davide Angelucci [Opens in a new window] ,
Lorenzo De Sio Open the ORCID record for Lorenzo De Sio [Opens in a new window] ,
Jessica Di Cocco Open the ORCID record for Jessica Di Cocco [Opens in a new window]  and
Till Weber
Davide Angelucci*
Affiliation:
Department of Law and Economics, Unitelma Sapienza, Rome, Italy
Lorenzo De Sio
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Luiss University, Rome, Italy
Jessica Di Cocco
Affiliation:
Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, European University Institute, Fiesole, Italy
Till Weber
Affiliation:
Departments of Political Science, Baruch College & The Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, USA
*
Corresponding author: Davide Angelucci; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Electoral competition is typically organized around an evolving set of policy issues. Recent Italian politics suggests a revival of two classic dimensions concerning the mode of interaction that defines the very goals of a polity: elitism (whether goals should be defined from the top down or from the bottom up) and pluralism (whether a polity should only accept widely shared common goals or whether multiple, alternative goals may legitimately compete). While these concerns possibly became less relevant in the heydays of the party government model, recent literatures on populism, technocracy, and process preferences reflect renewed interest. We introduce a two-dimensional elitism–pluralism scheme that explicates the spatial arrangement of top-down and bottom-up visions of party government vis-à-vis models of populism and technocracy. To demonstrate the relevance of the two dimensions for party preference, we turn to the case of the 2022 Italian election, which followed a sequence of a populist, a mixed populist-mainstream and a technocratic government. Voter positions from specialized batteries of the Italian National Election Study are contrasted with party positions from an original expert survey. Findings indicate that preferences on elitism and pluralism complement standard dimensions of issue voting. An explorative analysis of comparative data suggests that many countries across Europe have the potential for similar developments. Electoral competition increasingly reflects concerns about its own principles.

Keywords

electionselitismgoal definition preferencesItalypluralismpopulismtechnocracyunicorn migration
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , First View , pp. 1 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Società Italiana di Scienza Politica

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