Donatella Della Porta

In the last decades, a growing awareness has emerged in progressive social movements about the relevance of corruption as a hidden factor that negatively influences political and economic decision-making processes in both liberal-democratic and authoritarian regimes. Rampant corruption has been denounced by social movements, which have developed specific diagnostic and prognostic frames as well as knowledge and practices for the social accountability of political and economic powers. This contribution maps some of the characteristics of civil society as anti-corruption actors, reflecting on the theoretical challenges they present for social movement theory and for research on corruption and anti-corruption. In order to understand the emergence and outcomes of these mobilizations against corruption, it bridges two bodies of literature which have only very rarely crossed paths: corruption studies and social movement studies. Departing from the traditional visions of anti-corruption from below within corruption studies , the article brings upon social movement studies in order to synthetize some of the main context, organizational forms and framing of (anti-)corruption in today's contentious politics.

, four meeting points for protesters are set in four areas of Cairo, including working-class neighbourhoods. Before moving towards the city centres, the marchers travel through narrow residential streets, gathering participants on their way. Marches thus create physical occasions to join, then carry participants to their destination. As a protester puts it, 'You ' re taken to Tahrir by the demonstration itself as the head of the march guides it there' (El Chazli 2012). Spontaneous demonstrations follow in the next two days, including confrontations with police. On 28 January, a Friday of Rage is called for, with various demonstrations starting from mosques and churches. While the police assail the protesters with substantial use of teargas, the protesters attack police headquarters as well as the headquarters of the regime party. After that, the camps set up by protesters in Tahrir Square attract more and more people. On 15 May 2011, indignant citizens (whom the media called Indignados) start a permanent occupation of Puerta del Sol in Madrid, building a tent city for hundreds of protesters, but also other infra-structures for thousands of visitors. The mobilization quickly spreads to hundreds of Spanish cities all around the country. In fact, 'the encampments rapidly evolve into " cities within cities " ', governed through popular assemblies and committees. The committees are

Mainstream social movement studies have developed a useful kit of concepts and theories, well adapted to understanding social movements in core capitalist countries at the peak of growth of the welfare state. Widespread assumptions about the role of political opportunities, resource mobilization and framing processes need to be updated to make sense of contentious global politics in the 2000s, in particular, adding a focus on the socioeconomic conditions for protests. In order to illuminate research results about the social basis of anti-austerity protests, the article critically reviews some recent contributions to political economy. In particular, some of the most influential contributions within Marxist and post-Marxist approaches to relevant capitalist transformations are discussed, with reflections on different temporalities in capitalist transformations.

Citizen participation is a central component of democratic governance. As participatory schemes have grown in number and gained in social legitimacy over recent years, the research community has analyzed the virtues of participatory policies from several points of view, but usually giving focus to the most successful and well-known grass-roots cases. This book examines a wider range of participatory interventions that have been created or legitimized by central governments, providing original exploration of institutional democratic participatory mechanisms. Looking at a huge variety of subnational examples across Italy, Spain and France, the book interrogates the rich findings of a substantial research project. The authors use quantitative and qualitative methods to compare why these cases of participatory mechanisms have emerged, how they function, and what cultural impact they’ve achieved. This allows highly original insights into why participatory mechanisms work in some places, ...

This concise Report was prepared to outline the current state of academic research on violent radicalisation. Radicalisation to any form of violence, including terrorist violence, is a gradual or phased process. The Report finds that there are remarkable similarities between radicalisation to current Islamist or jihadist terrorism and radicalisation associated with left-wing, right-wing or ethno-nationalist terrorism in Western Europe since the 1960s. The Report also concludes that radicalisation leading to acts of terrorism is context-specific. Past and present waves of violent radicalisation which lead to terrorism among mainly young people share certain structural features. There is not any single root cause for radicalisation leading to terrorism but a number of factors may contribute to it. Precipitant (‘trigger’) factors vary according to individual experience and personal pathways to radicalisation. Personal experiences, kinship and bonds of friendship, as well as group dynam...

ABSTRACT This short article comments on Bennet's and Segerberg's work on connecting action. After singling out some conditions which, according to social movement studies, would make an aggregating logic and personalized messages very important for mobilization, the author calls for further research (including through qualitative methods) on the complex dynamics related to the contemporary use of various formats of communication by social movement activists.

Le origini del movimento italiano contro la globalizzazione neoliberista, la sua organizzazione, la sua identità, le sue strategie, le sue interazioni con l’establishment, in particolare con il governo e l’opposizione, in uno dei primi studi di sintesi che ne mette in luce la novità politica.

Contenido: El estudio de los movimientos sociales: conducta colectiva, acción racional, protestas y nuevos conflictos; Movimiento social y cambios estructurales; La dimensión simbólica de la acción colectiva; Acción colectiva e identidad; Redes de movimientos; Movimientos sociales y formas de organización; Formas, repertorios y ciclos de protesta; El contexto político de los movimientos sociales; Movimientos sociales: ¿cuáles consecuencias?.

... Comme le rappelle Gianfranco Pasquino, par «partitocratie» on entend «la présence et l'enracinement social et politique des partis de masse ... cité, p. 211-250 ; Délia Porta (D.), Vanucci (A.), Maladministrazione e corruzione in Italie* : risorse, meccanismi e attori, Bologne, II ...

Page 1. The `Perverse E ects' of Political Corruption* DONATELLA DELLA PORTA AND ALBERTO VANNUCCI Introduction The worst political crisis in the Italian republic's history began on 17 February 1992 in Milan, economic (and one-time moral) capital of the country. ...

ABSTRACT This article investigates the factors that explain differential individual involvement in political demonstrations. Though the question of who actually participates in (protest) politics is by no means new, the authors build here upon existing literature in social movement studies in order to test some of the existing hypotheses. Reviewing existing research on individual participation in contentious politics, four theoretical arguments used to explain participation differentials were highlighted: the socio-biographical argument pointing to either social centrality or biographical availability; the collective identity process based on the interaction between norms, values, and actions; the network integration argument; and the argument that emotions are in the driver's seat. The article proposes an original analysis based on surveys carried out during nine demonstrations that occurred in Italy between 2011 and 2013 on a variety of issues, some directly related to the economic crisis and the consequent austerity policies, others mainly addressing new social movements claims. Looking at the participation in demonstrations of 1624 protestors, we conclude that social centrality and collective identity formation have higher explanatory power in examining degrees of participation in protest.

Attention to extreme forms of political violence in the social sciences has been episodic, and studies of different forms of political violence have followed different approaches, with “breakdown” theories mostly used for the analysis of right-wing radicalism, social movement theories sometimes adapted to research on left-wing radical groups, and area study specialists focusing on ethnic and religious forms. Some of the studies on extreme forms of political violence that have emerged within the social movement tradition have nevertheless been able to trace processes of conflict escalation through the detailed examination of historical cases. This article assesses some of the knowledge acquired in previous research approaching issues of political violence from the social movement perspective, as well as the challenges coming from new waves of debate on terrorist and counterterrorist action and discourses. In doing this, the article reviews contributions coming from research looking at violence as escalation of action repertoires within protest cycles; political opportunity and the state in escalation processes; resource mobilization and violent organizations; narratives of violence; and militant constructions of external reality.

Abstract. Strong political parties and genuine competition among them feature in many anti- corruption strategies, but in practice the relationships between corruption and political parties are much more complex than is generally recognized. This article explores and illustrates ten ...

Social Movements is a comprehensive introduction and critical analysis of collective action in society today. In the latter part of the last century, social movements became a permanent feature of modern democracies. The students' and workers' protests of the 1960s have been followed by movements focusing on women's rights, ethnic identities, peace and environmental issues. This book draws on research and empirical work across the social sciences to address the key questions in this international field. In this new edition, the ...

Cet article se base sur une recherche menée lors des manifestations anti-mondialisation à Gênes en juillet 2001. Il analyse une image de la globalisation comme un phénomène essentiellement néo-libéral dont on a cru jusque-là qu'il provoquerait une fin des mouvements sociaux. L' ...

Abstract. This article focuses on the resources used in corrupt exchanges and the complex network of actors involved. The empirical analysis is drawn from research into the Italian case, and is based on judicial investigations, a newspaper-based data bank, and interviews. Defining ...

ABSTRACT Research on political violence occurs in waves, generally corresponding to the successive swells of violence that in many ways define modern society. Critically, this violence is characterized as much by diversity as by uniformity. As each new spate in research on political violence has shown us, rarely can we generalize about either the aims or the repertoires of action of the purveyors of violence. Some similar mechanisms are in play, however, as violence develops from political conflicts between states and their opponents. This suggestion comes from social movement studies, whose influence is increasing in the analysis of political violence. These studies developed especially from a critique of “terrorism studies,” which emerged within security studies as a branch of international relations and have traditionally been more oriented toward developing antiterrorist policies than toward a social scientific understanding of political violence. As Jeff Goodwin (2004: 260) points out, “Many who have written about terrorism have been directly or indirectly involved in the business of counterterrorism, and their vision has been narrowed and distorted by the search for effective responses to terrorism, often very loosely defined.” Consequently, terrorist studies have often been influenced by practical policy concerns, multiplying in times of crisis with lower scientific standards than other disciplines (Crenshaw 2010). As Alexander George (1991: 92) puts it, “Terrorology is intellectually sterile, if not bankrupt, because the construct of ‘terror’ employed by terroristologists was not developed in response to honest puzzlement about the real world, but rather in response to ideological pressure.” Terrorist studies in fact have been criticized as event-driven and policy-driven, deeply enmeshed in actual practices of counterterrorism (Ranstorp 2009). Scholars have also lamented the limited presence of empirical research and the poor quality of much terrorism research. According to Andrew Silke (2003: xvii), “A review of recent research work found that only about 20 percent of published articles on terrorism are providing substantially new knowledge on the subject.” Much has been written on the basis of little empirical research that was also often impressionistic and superficial (Schmid and Jongman 1988). Far-reaching generalizations have been proposed on the basis not only of sporadic evidence (ibid.) but also of a general ahistoricity of the field (Breen Smyth 2007: 260) and the limited comparative analysis of political violence over time and space. Furthermore and perhaps most fundamentally, in terrorism studies there has been a tendency to reify terrorism (and terrorists) based on the use of some forms of collective action. Social movement scholars have been uneasy with the use of a term that is not only politically highly contested but also of doubtful heuristic value. Another issue is that in both terrorism studies and antiterrorism policies, the term radicalization—a crucial part of understanding political violence—has been much used to profile large groups of people considered “at risk” of radicalization. According to this application, those who have reasons to feel discriminated against are easy prey of religious fanaticism, which provides much-needed collective identities. In a vicious circle, social groups considered vulnerable to radical propaganda because they are excluded and/or discriminated against tend to be treated as potential risks, thereby strengthening those feelings of exclusion and discrimination. Especially migrants (first or second generation) are considered still more rebellious the more they belong to an economically, politically, or culturally marginalized people and/ or the less they are integrated into the host society.1 Recently, however, attention to the contributions of social movement theories to explaining political violence has increased. In the social movement field, radicalization has been addressed especially in research on non-Western democracies (Wiktorowicz 2004). Additionally, a school of “critical terrorism studies” has aroused in international relations and area studies interest in the application of social movement theories to political violence (Jackson et al. 2009). In particular, social movement theories have been praised for their potential to de-exceptionalize violence by locating it in broader contexts and complex processes (Gunning 2009). Perhaps most critically, this has come through detailed examinations of historical cases. Especially in the 1980s and 1990s a growing number of empirical research projects in the social movement tradition looked at political violence as emerging from interactions between various actors. In particular, radicalization processes appeared...

ABSTRACT Fifteenth October 2011, a global day of anti-austerity action called for by the Spanish indignados, saw hundreds of thousands of protestors converging on Rome for a national march. One of the largest, this Rome event was however one of the most problematic, as it was disrupted by violent protests and the lack of will or capacity by the police to protect peaceful demonstrators. In this article, based on interviews with social movement organisers and police officers as well as documentary analysis, we examine similarities and differences between the 2001 G8 Genoa counter-summit and the demonstration of October 15th in Rome by analysing the specific characteristics in the police use of coercive techniques on the street, negotiation (or lack thereof) and the gathering of information. We then try to explain those characteristics, addressing some aspects of the Italian police organisation, the protest itself and the political system.

ABSTRACT Pierre Rosanvallon is one of the most important political theorists writing in French. Counter-Democracy: Politics in an Age of Distrust is a book about the limits of conventional understandings of democracy. Rosanvallon argues that while most theories of democracy focus on institutionalized forms of political participation (especially elections), the vitality of democracy rests equally on forms of “counter-democracy” through which citizens dissent, protest, and exert pressure from without on the democratic state. This argument is relevant to the concerns of a broad range of political scientists, most especially students of democratic theory, electoral and party politics, social movements, social capital, and “contentious politics.” The goal of this symposium is to invite a number of political scientists who work on these issues to comment on the book from their distinctive disciplinary, methodological, and theoretical perspectives.—Jeffrey C. Isaac, Editor