In recent decades primary elections have become popular and widely used in Europe. In this general context, France and Italy are interesting cases because they are the only two countries where political parties decided to adopt «open primaries» ensuring the maximum level of inclusiveness. Thus, a com- parison of the Italian and French cases appears relevant, also given the success of their experiences and the political debate they seem to have generated about the adoption of this type of elections, both in parties initially against their adoption and in other po- litical parties across Europe. So far little attention has been devoted to the comparison of primaries between the two countries, while major studies have indeed addressed the issue from a national perspective. Moreover, the impact on public debate is still entirely missing in the current studies on primary elections in Europe. This article aims to ll this gap by clarifying what meaning the parties attach to their primaries and how the main national newspapers cover this particular type of election. Moreover, the research aims to investigate the public image of parties and candidates and how primary elec- tions can contribute to their features. The results show that primaries, though designed for other purposes, may be important communication tools, for parties and (especially) candidates.

Le elezioni primarie come strumento di comunicazione. L'immagine pubblica di candidati e partiti in Italia e Francia

BOBBA, Giuliano
2016-01-01

Abstract

In recent decades primary elections have become popular and widely used in Europe. In this general context, France and Italy are interesting cases because they are the only two countries where political parties decided to adopt «open primaries» ensuring the maximum level of inclusiveness. Thus, a com- parison of the Italian and French cases appears relevant, also given the success of their experiences and the political debate they seem to have generated about the adoption of this type of elections, both in parties initially against their adoption and in other po- litical parties across Europe. So far little attention has been devoted to the comparison of primaries between the two countries, while major studies have indeed addressed the issue from a national perspective. Moreover, the impact on public debate is still entirely missing in the current studies on primary elections in Europe. This article aims to ll this gap by clarifying what meaning the parties attach to their primaries and how the main national newspapers cover this particular type of election. Moreover, the research aims to investigate the public image of parties and candidates and how primary elec- tions can contribute to their features. The results show that primaries, though designed for other purposes, may be important communication tools, for parties and (especially) candidates.
2016
16
1
23
44
https://www.rivisteweb.it/doi/10.3270/82884
France, Italy, personalization, political parallelism, primary elections.
G. Bobba
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
03_Bobba.pdf

Accesso riservato

Tipo di file: PREPRINT (PRIMA BOZZA)
Dimensione 90.54 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
90.54 kB Adobe PDF   Visualizza/Apri   Richiedi una copia

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1577058
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 1
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact