Articles by Andrea Pareschi
Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 2025
The rise of constraining dissensus is widely regarded by scholars as a pivotal shift for European... more The rise of constraining dissensus is widely regarded by scholars as a pivotal shift for European integration, highlighting an increasing gap between pro-European political elites and a more sceptical public. Italy emerges as a case of particular interest with regard to this phenomenon, as its longstanding pro-Europeanism eventually gave way to a major Eurosceptic turn during the 2010s. Despite the extensive literature on EU mass-elite congruence, the overall comparative longitudinal evidence on this opinion gap remains limited. To address this issue, the article uses a multi-level model for a mass-elite congruence analysis relying on data from eight surveys conducted between 1979 and 2016. Our findings provide innovative evidence of a double-sided gap: overall, political elites from pro-European parties are significantly more supportive of European integration than their voters, whereas the reverse holds true for Eurosceptics. However, this pattern does not hold for Italy, where a comparatively higher mass-elite alignment on European integration sets the country apart as an outlier within the broader European context.
Journal of Common Market Studies, 2025
Recent research on party-based Euroscepticism increasingly ascribes ‘hard Euroscepticism’ only to... more Recent research on party-based Euroscepticism increasingly ascribes ‘hard Euroscepticism’ only to parties pursuing exit from the EU. I argue that such interpretation, besides deviating from Taggart and Szczerbiak's original work, conceals the actual extent of ‘principled opposition’ to European integration. This contribution reconsiders and redefines hard Euroscepticism, restoring consistency with Szczerbiak and Taggart's reasoning whilst anchoring the category in the substantive core of European integration: an integrated common market, the legitimacy of a supranational layer, the possibility of further expansion of competences and EU core values. Compared to the understanding centred on exit, this (re)definition brings several advantages. Above all, it prevents the reduction of hard Euroscepticism to a merely strategic–tactical variable exclusively reserved for opposition parties. Moreover, it avoids the conflation of ‘strange bedfellows’ in the adjacent category of soft Euroscepticism. These arguments should stoke debate on the relationship between interpretations of European integration and Euroscepticism, hard and soft.
Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée, 2025
The Brexit referendum allegedly showcased an opinion divide on European integration between Briti... more The Brexit referendum allegedly showcased an opinion divide on European integration between British citizens and political elites. Yet, no dedicated study of “EU issue congruence” has been realised in its wake, whereas earlier comparative analyses had found little opinion discrepancy in the UK. This article fills the gap. Leveraging mass and elite survey data uniquely gathered in mid-2016 in ten countries, it comprehensively assesses congruence at the time of the referendum. Remarkably, the UK of 2016 shows almost no trace of the “pro-EU elite bias” which constitutes the prevailing transnational trend. At country level, tight mass-elite correspondence emerges. At party level, the British parties even display overall anti-EU elite bias. The findings complement the “Brexitology” literature originated from the referendum. In comparative perspective, they prove that “constraining dissensus” can come in many guises, not necessarily as a mass-elite gap on the dimension of European integration. Accordingly, comparative research on EU issue congruence might neglect certain kinds of opinion gaps. Other blind spots of this body of research, at the party level, concern unclear linkages between party-voter congruence and parties’ prospects, and treatment of parties as “black boxes”.
Journal of Contemporary European Research, 2023
This article makes the case that attitudes towards the EU should be conceptualised as to then be ... more This article makes the case that attitudes towards the EU should be conceptualised as to then be employed as analytical tools for comparison within and between European countries. As is argued, at present this move is all the more necessary, since compounded the contested, open-ended nature of European integration. In parallel, EU studies have already increasingly acknowledged the context dependence, heterogeneity and ambivalence of such attitudes, moving beyond the presumption of stable support or opposition. This article leverages a variety of extant works and the empirical outcomes of a deductive-cum-inductive research endeavour to craft a comprehensive inventory of 16 interpretative frames. Then, it highlights a fundamental prospective application, discussing practices devised to enable the construction of a frame-based approach to mass-elite congruence on European integration. Further avenues for future research, which could be pursued on the back of a relaunch of frame analysis in EU studies, entail the study of-level attitudes towards the EU.
Italian Political Science Review/Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, 2023
This article undertakes a critical revisitation of mass-elite congruence on EU matters, taking st... more This article undertakes a critical revisitation of mass-elite congruence on EU matters, taking stock of 30 years of research and addressing durable ambiguities flagged by recent scholarship. Its specific contribution leverages EUEngage elite and mass survey data gathered in 2016 in 10 European countries. Examining congruence at both the country and the party level, we carry out an uncommon multidimensional analysis that encompasses general European integration and certain key sub-dimensions. At both levels, we perform a distinctive systematization of multiple approaches to the assessment of EU issue congruence, probing the substantive consistency of ensuing results. The findings qualify and soften the conventional wisdom of a chasm between pro-European elites and lukewarm citizens. While most countries exhibit pro-EU elite bias in terms of averages and proportions alike, mass-elite alignment is the rule when the general dimension and its sub-dimensions are understood as binary. Party-level analyses display different outcomes, depending on whether party positions are derived from elites' self-placement or their voters' perceptions, yet discrepancies are generally lower than in past assessments. Altogether, 'constraining dissensus' chiefly emerges along sub-dimensions concerning decision-making authority, as opposed to sub-dimensions evoking solidarity and burden-sharing. The layered panorama of congruence and incongruence implies a dependence of mass-elite interplays on context and sub-dimensions, drawing attention to the mediating role of critical junctures and elite entrepreneurship.
PuntOorg International Journal, 2020
During the last few years, external crises and endogenous weaknesses have combined to plunge the ... more During the last few years, external crises and endogenous weaknesses have combined to plunge the Italian political system into generalised instability. In particular, the major political parties have experienced rapidly turning tides in a context of intensified electoral volatility. This explorative article sets out to get an insight into the discursive struggles that have pitted these parties one against another, undergirding the ebb and flow in their respective mass support and revolving around the ways of communicating political change. To that end, I collect data from the official Facebook pages of the four main Italian parties, downloading posts they published in the period 2013-2019 via the Netvizz application, and I analyse the four corresponding textual corpora through the technique of Topic Modelling. On such bases, the article finds the overall configuration of the political discourse of Italian parties to be aptly described by a model comprising 16 topics, equally divided into 'partisan' and 'cross-cutting' ones, with the former having a slight edge in terms of diffusion. The four parties differ among themselves by the topics they focus on and by the quantity of topics they choose to include sizably in their streams of communication.
Immigration, Elites and the European Union. The Framing of Populism in the Discourse of Farage's UKIP
Comunicazione Politica, 2018
In recent years the UK Independence Party became an influential force in Britain, as made evident... more In recent years the UK Independence Party became an influential force in Britain, as made evident by the Brexit referendum, which however proved to be its swan song. Based on a tripartition of variants of populism, this article sets out to assess empirically the usage of populist categories in the discourse of Ukip under Farage's leadership. Firstly, recalling the array of factors at various levels that caused or facilitated the rise of the party, we state our focus on actor-centred ideational strategies. Secondly, we discuss a gap between existing descriptions of the populist vein of the party and the main conceptualisations of populism devised within the related body of literature. Thirdly, after having discussed the commonalities between ideological and discursive approaches to populism, we take a further step towards their reconciliation by outlining the contours of a «strategic constructivist» theoretical perspective. Finally, we perform qualitative analysis of the leader's keynote speeches delivered at party conferences in 2011-2015, which arguably best represent the discourse of Farage's Ukip. The analysis reveals the framing of «empty signifiers», such as the «elite» and the «people», that were given different but skilfully reconciled and occasionally blurred meanings, consistent with the political context and strategic aims.
Interdisciplinary Political Studies, 2018
In 2016, the Brexit-Trump watershed resulted in two consecutive shocks for British foreign policy... more In 2016, the Brexit-Trump watershed resulted in two consecutive shocks for British foreign policy, which under the May governments has been rearticulated around the goal to forge 'Global Britain'. This article discusses how the 'Global Britain' strategy may play out in two broad international domains – trade and security – to elaborate on implications for the international order. The analysis especially elucidates the dubious feasibility of compensating 'hard Brexit' with free-trade agreements around the world, and the pitfalls of extrication from the EU as regards common foreign policy, data-sharing and sanctions policy. Trump's election is argued to bring about a more protectionist trade environment while facilitating the prospect of a UK-US trade deal, which however compels the British government to uneasy balancing acts. Finally, an interest-oriented Global Brit-ain about to face diplomatic overstretching and economic difficulties is suggested to have turned into a more precarious defender of the rules-based international order.
The multiple tensions of British democracy
Revue Internationale de Politique Comparée, 2017
Books by Andrea Pareschi
FEPS & Fondazione Gramsci onlus, 2020
In the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis, the Italian political landscape has been reshaped by ... more In the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis, the Italian political landscape has been reshaped by the rise of populist and right-wing nationalist parties and movements. Progressives who have tried to respond to the growing demands for social protection have had to do so in a context marked by exclusionary articulations of ideas of welfare state and public intervention. Together with these changes came radical transformations in the very language of politics, also influenced by the emergence of social media as key channels of communication. In this book, the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS) and Fondazione Gramsci present a four-part study by historians and political scientists that seeks to examine these processes in their different dimensions. Centring around Italy, this book stresses the key role that national traditions and national responses to globalisation play in shaping different framings of nationalist and populist discourses. At the same time, its analyses and results speak to broader European concerns. The transformation of the language of politics and the impact of exclusionary anti-establishment messages affect most EU countries and represent crucial challenges for all European democracies and for European progressive forces. Understanding these processes is the first step towards addressing them.
Book Chapters by Andrea Pareschi
Mass–Elite Representation Gap in Old and New Democracies: Critical Juncture and Elite Agency, 2024
Valbruzzi M. (ed.), "L’Italia sovranista e la sfida all’Europa: Le elezioni europee ed amministrative 2019", Bologna, Istituto Carlo Cattaneo, May 30, 2019
Regno Unito: Un terremoto politico che non risolve la saga della Brexit Ogni elezione europea fa ... more Regno Unito: Un terremoto politico che non risolve la saga della Brexit Ogni elezione europea fa storia a sé, con trionfi e cadute che spesso si consumano (o recuperano) in pochi anni: il che oltre Manica significa spesso "montagne russe", in cui risultati estremi faticano poi a riprodursi nelle successive elezioni politiche. Ma per il Regno Unito queste elezioni sono del tutto particolari, per diversi motivi. Innanzitutto, perché non si sarebbero dovute tenere, se Theresa May -dimessasi il giorno dopo il voto europeo -fosse riuscita a portare il Paese fuori dall'UE entro la scadenza prevista del 29 marzo. Inoltre, perché non si sa quanto a lungo i deputati britannici eletti potranno sedere al Parlamento europeo, visto che questo dipenderà -terzo ma fondamentale punto -dalla capacità del nuovo governo di rispettare la scadenza per l'uscita dall'UE, ora prevista per il 31 ottobre.
L'elettorato dello Uk Independence Party
Biancalana C. & Legnante G. (eds.), "Partiti ed elettori in tempi di crisi", Milano, Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, 2017
Dall'irrilevanza alla Brexit: L'ascesa dello UKIP
Baldini G. (ed.), "La Gran Bretagna dopo la Brexit", Bologna, Il Mulino, Oct 2016
L'architettura del governo di coalizione e le sue policies più salienti (2010-2015)
Baldini G. (ed.), "La Gran Bretagna dopo la Brexit", Bologna, Il Mulino, Oct 2016
Book Reviews by Andrea Pareschi
Book Review: "The Legacy of Thatcherism" (C. Hay & S. Farrall, eds., 2014)
Book Review: "Revolt on the Right" (R. Ford & M. Goodwin, 2014)
Reports by Andrea Pareschi
Non-Academic Articles by Andrea Pareschi
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Articles by Andrea Pareschi
Books by Andrea Pareschi
Book Chapters by Andrea Pareschi
Book Reviews by Andrea Pareschi
Reports by Andrea Pareschi
Non-Academic Articles by Andrea Pareschi