Monocratic Government: The Impact of Personalisation on Democratic Regimes

Fortunato Musella

Feb 2022 · De Gruyter Contemporary Social Sciences Book 8 · Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

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162

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About this ebook

Personalisation is the most relevant political phenomenon of our time. After the decline of structural and ideological foundations of Western democracies, a radical shift from collective to individual actors and institutions has occurred in several political systems. On the one hand, political leaders have gained centrality on the democratic scene as a consequence of both a more direct, sometimes plebiscitary, relationship with citizens, and a more direct control of the executive administration. On the other hand, a process of fragmentation occurs at the mass level, where electoral volatility has strongly increased and the spread of social media enables each citizen to express their convictions in the self-referential autonomy of the digital networks.

Monocratic Government: The Impact of Personalisation on Democratic Regimes analyses the consequences of personalisation of political leaders on democratic government by asking whether it is possible to keep together demos and kratos in a post-particratic context. It explores topics such as governmental decrees, Trump-governance, and includes an analysis of the coronavirus outbreak. Offering comparative insights and exploring how political leaders govern in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Hungary, this volume brings into focus the study of political personalisation in relation to some of the key trends – and crises – in modern politics.

About the author

Fortunato Musella is Full Professor of Political Science at the University of Naples Federico II. He has been a visiting scholar at Cornell University (USA), visiting professor at the Sussex European Institute (UK) and Leuphana Universität (Germany), professor of Political Concepts for the PhD courses of the Scuola Superiore Normale di Pisa (2010-2017), and in Accademia Aeronautica militare (2018-2020). He has served in the Italian University Council (CUN) and in the Editorial Board of the Italian Political Science Review. Currently he is on the Executive Board of Federica WebLearning, Center for Innovation and Dissemination of Distance Learning. He also is Principal Investigator for the national project Monocratic Government. The Impact of Personalisation on Contemporary Political Regimes, financed by the Ministery of University and Research (PRIN 2020-2023).

His main research interests include the study of government, presidential politics, political parties, concept analysis and digital politics. Among his recent publications are the volumes Governi monocratici. La svolta presidenziale nelle regioni italiane (Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009), Il premier diviso. Italia tra presidenzialismo e parlamentarismo (Milan, Bocconi, 2012), Political Leaders beyond Party Politics (London, Palgrave, 2017).

Recently he published the bestseller in its category, Il Principe digitale (Roma-Bari, Laterza, 2019), dedicated to investigating changes introduced by digital technologies in politics.

He has written eighty book chapters and articles in peer review journal such as European Political Science Review, Representation, Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft, Italian Political Science Review, Contemporary Italian Politics, Polis, Quaderni di Scienza Politica.

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