Will social media save democracy? Political leadership in the age of social media.

Will social media save democracy?

Political leadership in the age of social media

An olistic approach?

The quality of democracy: a multidimensional model

The context of late western democracies

Exhausted democracies?

Global scale -> crisis of participation and rising of delegation

Sub-global scale -> self-building “casta”: politicians’ élites close themselves in a walled garden (for instance using electoral mechanisms).

Global scale -> Contamination of public sphere with gossip

Personalisation of politics

Leadership as a core element of the political purpose

Leader as a symbolic tool for party/coalition identity and for electoral campaign

Leader as a character of a symbolic narration where private and public topics are mixed (for instance: representation of leaders’ families as dinasties)

The rise of social networks

Development of social media as tools for

new collective identities and organized movements

new kind of parties centered on the strong use of internet tools

“political” or “prepolitical”, non continuous activities related to single facts or opinion campaigns

Traditional vs New?

Traditional model New model

Adult, professional politicians

One way media (newspapers, Tv)

Durable leadership, grounded on the apparatus

Young non professional politicians

Digital interactive media (internet, social networks)

Grassroots, dynamic leadership

Critical points

Forms of representation (often the same in traditional and social media)

Topics source (often the topics come from traditional media; they are only elaborated and shaped within the s.m.)

Political status is not indifferent in positioning subjects in the political media environment

Every form of leadership depends on the process of selection within different élites (s.m. èlites included)

Leadership and social visibility

According with Foucault, we can distinguish between two forms of power, characterized by different forms of visibility:

Power of sovereignity (visibility of the leader, invisibility of the subject)

Power of surveillance (visibility of the citizen, invisibility of the institutions)

Actual forms of visibility

New development of sovereignity visibility: the exibition of the leaders is continuous, enphasized, and symbolize political parties and coalitions.

The visibility of the citizen within the s.m. is often connected with new forms of social control or monitorizing.

The results are new forms of interaction between the two forms of power analyzed by Foucault

The new sovereignity model

Strong concentration of political/symbolic power

Overexposition in the traditional media

(sovereignity model)

Overesposition in social media

Surveillance model

Visibility as a weak point

Crisis of the sovereignity model

Crisis of the leadership

Traditional leader- building process

Personalisation and exposition

The Milan SpringSocial media and

local elections

Fausto Colombo

Università Cattolica di Milano

Italy

Time line of local elections 2011 in Italy

First ballot: may, 15th and 16th Second ballot: may, 22th and -23°

Referendum (june, 2nd) to abrogate laws about privatization of water, nuclear energy (laws approved by Berlusconi Government)…

Local elections: dimensions

1343 municipalities*

*(Among them some big towns/metropolies Torino, Milano, Napoli, Bologna, Cagliari)

11 provincial administrations*

*(In Italy’s system of local government, each province is made up of a group of neighbouring municipalities, the most important of which acts as the provincial capital. Each province is served by a provincial council, a committee, and a president)

Political (national) context

National government is formed by a right-wing coalition (PDL+LN). The premier is Silvio Berlusconi

The polls showed a lasting approval to the national government by the majority of citizens

Milan, in particular, is the core of the right-wing coalition (many mayors from right-wing parties since the early 90s)

Characteristics of the electoral mechanism

National and local elections have different rules: National elections: Italian electoral legislation

went from a proportional to a first-past-the-post system in 1993 but in 2005 the proportional system was restored, with a majority premium, single ballot, without preferential vote

Local elections present a first-past-the-post system, double ballot, with preferential vote.

Milan context

Right-wing candidate: the incumbent mayor Letizia Moratti (past president Rai, past minister of school and university)

Left-wing candidate: Giuliano Pisapia, famous lawer, past member of the Parliament as a representer of the extreme left

The primary election and Pisapia’s victory

Primary elections for the left-wing candidate: Pisapia is candidate by the civil society, against the candidate of the PD, Stefano Boeri

Pisapia win the primary election (14th November 2010: 45%, against Boeri’s 40%. Voters about 77.600).

PD endorses Pisapia as a candidate of the whole coalition

David vs Goliath

Electoral expenses Moratti electoral committee: 10 millions euros Pisapia electoral committee: 1.100.000 euros

Expenses per voter: Moratti: 287 euros Pisapia 0.60 euros

David vs Goliath 2

Moratti endorsements Institutions: National Government, Regional

Government, Provincial Government Media: main local Tv and Radio many

newspapers Pisapia endorsments

Lobbies Some newspaper (Repubblica f.i.) Social media

Polls

The electoral law in Italy does not allow publication of polls within the two weeks before the elections. At that point, the polls showed Moratti leading, althought Pisapia was rocovering.

After the limit, the polls continued to be published, with some trick:http://www.sondaggibidimedia.com/2011/05/corse-clandestine-le-ferrari-vincono.html

Campaign Key Issues

Moratti: Claiming for good results in government Self definition as a moderate Attack on Pisapia, as a friend of squatters, extremist,

past defender of terrorists... Pisapia:

Need for a change in Milan Attack on Moratti, as a conservative, unfit for innovation Need for a different politics, more participated by

citizens

Sky elections

Preliminary remarks: the “par condicio” law The Sky campaign: Sky News propose the

face-to-face formula as a democratic tool First face-to-face on Sky Pisapia Moratti and

Moratti attack (May 11th): http://tv.repubblica.it/edizione/milano/l-attacco-della-moratti-a-pisapia/68156?video=&pagefrom=1

Second ftf (May 26th): Pisapia is absent. Within the studio Moratti and an empty chair

The web strikes back

Mediatic effects after the Face-to-face Traditional media show Moratti lied Rumors about a U-turn in the polls Social media:

Facebook and Moratti Quotes Sucate Campaign Movies on Youtube Il favoloso mondo di Pisapia (The

Fabulous World of Pisapie)

Moratti Quotes on Facebook

Facebook collective campaign: people supporting Pisapia posted paradoxical negative sentences about him:

Pisapia has found the Holy Grail, but he uses it to put toothbrush and toothpaste.

Pisapia has stolen the van the A-Team. Pisapia sends spam emails with viagra. Pisapia sends letters without a stamp. If you listen to the contrary Pisapia hear the sound of the

devil. Pisapia is building the Death Star

The fabulous world of Pisapie

Source: Le fabuleux destin d’Amélie Poulain, 2001 (english translation: Amélie)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwDWrrW4cg8

Sucate

Complaint about an unauthorized mosque at the quarter named Sucate (wich doesn’t exist) sent to Moratti electoral committee

The committee replies assuming the real existence of Sucate and the mosque (!?)

Start of the countercampaign on the web

The Sucate countercampaign

Wikipedia Entries: Sucate and Giandomenico Puppa (name of the street of the hypothetical unauthorized mosque)

Fakes on the web

Election results

Pisapia won: First ballot: Pisapia 48,04%, Moratti 41,58% Second ballot: Pisapia 55,12%, Moratti 44,88%

The left-wing coalition won the elections in Italy (also in Naples, Turin, Bologna, Cagliari)

At the referendum (first time in 20 years) the voters reached the majority plus one, and the laws are abrogate

The role of social media

SM have been effective because people involved (as activists or receivers) in left-wing campaign are web-oriented in their approach to political information and communication (public sphere)

SM strenght is in inverse proportion to the capability of traditional media to get the trends in civil society

http://www.sondaggielettorali.it/

http://www.sondaggielettorali.it/

The role of social media 2

Communication mistakes made by the right-wing coalition (see the inflation of Moratti’s FB profiles) allowed the opposite coalition to use the web in a paradoxical and satyrical way

This kind of use is typical of the web and SMs, and enable them to be more and more effective in their communication (false vs fake)

The rise of indignation

Pisapia’s victory and the success of the referendum are a typical italian phenomenon

Social movements before the elections (women, jobless, students and teachers)

General crisis of so-called Berlusconism, from the point of view Of the political proposal Of the typical media mix (Tv centered)

The mechanism of the victory is the “building of social hero”

The rise of indignation 2

Pisapia’s victory and the success of the referendum are also part of a wider, global phenomenon (indignados in Spain, arabian riots and revolutions, riots in many countries)

And depends on general causes Economic Ideological/political Social

The importance of social media in electoral campaigns…

…depends on Weakness of traditional media Strong presence of social identities Political culture oriented towards participation

Political Mediatic Social

Thank you for your attention!

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