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ABSTRACT
Scholarly literature has devoted a lot of attention to the declining number of party members in post-industrial societies, arguing that parties now lack the incentives to maintain a large membership. However, some right-wing populist parties have continued to rely on activism by being rooted at the local level and by fostering the creation of closed communities of ideologically committed members. In short, they have adopted the organizational model of the mass party. By focusing on one of these organizations, the Italian Lega Nord (Northern League, LN) under the leadership of Umberto Bossi (1991–2012), and by drawing on individual and group interviews with party members, this article explores the latter’s experiences of activism. It highlights the reasons why activists stayed in the LN and what they gained from doing so and provides evidence of the strength of their commitment to their party, showing that the fostering of a strong collective identity among people was an important ingredient of the LN’s appeal. The article concludes that the model of the mass party is far from having become obsolete, even today.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to the LN members who agreed to be interviewed for this research. I also wish to thank the anonymous reviewers and the editors of this journal for their insightful comments on a previous draft of this article. The usual disclaimer applies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Following Panebianco (Citation1988), I do not regard internal democracy as a necessary feature of the mass party organizational model.
2. Admittedly, as the distinction between ‘member’ and ‘supporter’ has become more fuzzy in recent years (Young Citation2013, 2), so has the line between ‘member’ and ‘activist’: There is usually a ‘participation continuum’ (Panebianco Citation1988, 26) between the two rather than a clear dividing line.
3. In this study, I adopt the definition of right-wing populism that I have put forward in Populists in Power: ‘A thin-centred ideology which pits a virtuous and homogeneous people against a set of elites and dangerous “others” who are together depicted as depriving (or attempting to deprive) the sovereign people of their rights, values, prosperity, identity and voice’ (Albertazzi and McDonnell Citation2015, 5).
4. Figures quoted in this article refer to the total number of members, whether Soci Ordinari-Militanti or Soci Sostenitori. On the difference between these two categories, see below.
5. In May 2015, I asked The Federal Organisational Secretariat of the Lega Nord to make their most recent membership data available to me. Unlike on previous occasions, this time it declined to do so.
6. See: http://www.leganord.org/index.php/notizie/le-news/11608-lega-domani-le-primarie-per-il-rinnovo-segreteria-federale, cited in McDonnell (Citation2015, 14).
7. That this is unlikely to apply to every single member is not important in the context of the present discussion, since here we are focusing on how the LN’s activists themselves explain and justify their membership of the party. Although an understanding of the issues just mentioned should not rely exclusively on what activists have to say about their experiences, no attempt to grasp the meaning of activism (whether among populist parties – or indeed any others) can, or should, avoid proper consideration of their testimonies either (Blee Citation2007).
8. Discussing such ideology is beyond the scope of this article. For a recent analysis, see Albertazzi and McDonnell (Citation2015, 42–48).
9. Wall posters and political graffiti have always played an important role as part of the communicative strategy of this party. Confirming the principle that the medium is the message, their adoption by ‘Bossi’s Lega’ has helped shape the narrative of an organization that wished to be perceived as genuine, close to the people, present on the ground and reliant on ordinary folks.
10. The fact that many people would object to this ideology and find it simplistic, or even offensive, is irrelevant here.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Daniele Albertazzi
Daniele Albertazzi is Senior Lecturer in European Politics in the Department of Political Science and International Studies (POLSIS) of the University of Birmingham. He is the co-editor of Twenty-first Century Populism – the Spectre of Western European Democracy (with D. McDonnell, Palgrave, 2008) and Resisting the Tide: Cultures of Opposition under Berlusconi (2001-06) (with C. Brook, C. Ross and N. Rothenberg, Continuum, 2009). His monograph Populists in Power, co-written with Duncan McDonnell, was published by Routledge in 2015. Daniele is the co-convenor of the Political Studies Association’s Italian Politics Specialist Group.