Abstract:

The Italian Five Star Movement is an interesting case in terms of European and world politics. The movement, which opposes models of representative democracy and has an ideal of internet-based direct democracy, has achieved serious success in local and general elections in Italy. The movement, founded by the comedian and popular blogger Beppe Grillo in the virtual world, took its place as an important political actor in Italian politics in a short period. This movement, which does not call itself a "traditional political party", managed to get votes from different parts of the political spectrum and directed those who were not interested in politics and did not participate actively before, to political activism. This movement, which was organized online in the virtual world around Grillo's personal blog, was also spread offline and Italian squares by using digital platforms such as meetup. The Internet is both organizationally important and seen as a place where participatory direct democracy can be implemented. In this study, the transformation process of the Italian Five Star Movement from a personal blog to a national movement and a political party is discussed. Its anti-system and anti-party rhetoric, extraordinary electoral successes and unique organizational structure make the movement worth examining. Being a ruling party from the combination of dispersed, decentralized protest movements, its history, leader, organizational structure, the role of the internet and online applications in this process are examined.

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