Anti-politics in Contemporary Italy

Vittorio Mete is an Associate Professor of Political Sociology at Florence University (Italy), where he teaches courses in The Sociology of Leadership, Criminal Networks and Society and Democracy. His research interests include anti-politics, political leadership; local politics; political careerism and the political class; political parties; voting behaviour and political participation; organised crime; anti-mafia policies and anti-mafia movements. His recent publications include The trader perspective: researching extortion in Palermo, in Modern Italy (2018); (together with Anna Carola Freschi), The electoral personalization of Italian mayors. A study of 25 years of direct election, in the Italian Political Science Review (2020); Antipolitica. Protagonisti e forme di un’ostilità diffusa, (il Mulino, 2022).

• 1.The concept of anti-politics  2. Anti-politics prior to anti-politics. Citizens and politics in Italy after the Second World War  3. The League: anti-politics of struggle and anti-politics in government  4. The centre-left: between democratic innovation and the “scrapping” of the old political class  5. The Five Star Movement: anti-politics in the form of a new party  6. A socio-political profile of anti-political citizens  7. Conclusions. Political uses of anti-politics