Development of Italy's Five Star Movement: national versus local level

This paper is a single-country case study whose aim is to analyze the development and structural changes in the Italian populist Five Star Movement (M5S), and more particularly the impact of those changes on the local level of the movement. The main goal is to show a shift in the party organization away from the direct and arbitrary control previously exercised by the movement's indisputable leader Beppe Grillo. The main structural factors which caused this shift (role of the media, new electoral system, style of politics of Matteo Renzi, “going mainstream” in order to get more votes, declining political appeal of Grillo) will be examined, both at the local and national level. The paper will argue that the change of course at national level was the same in form and rationale as previously attempted local initiatives in the M5S which were at the time severely punished by the leadership of the movement. A second and related goal is to identify the strategies with which the M5S addressed challenges at the local level in medium-sized cities where they govern (Parma, Livorno and Civitavecchia), how these local politicians contributed to the change of course in the national movement, and how they were able to assert their political view even when not being in alignment with the official position of Grillo and his followers. The question of cohesion and compactness of the movement will be also discussed.