POLS PVES Seminars Series

Political competition and Minimum Income Scheme.
The case of Citizenship Income in the last Italian election campaign
Arianna Colombo and Valeria De Tommaso
(POLS PhD candidates)

17 July 2024, h.10
Room A & ONLINE
Via Pace 10 - Milan 

Abstracts

In the last Italian general elections, political parties in major coalitions took - significantly - different positions on various issues, particularly about the Citizenship Income (Reddito di Cittadinanza, RdC). RdC is a social assistance scheme introduced by the Conte government early in 2019. As known, Italy was the last country in Western Europe to fulfill this gap in social assistance and its implementation represented an important shift in the history of the Italian welfare state. However, since its very beginning the RdC has given rise to several debates and harsh criticisms both between and within the main Italian political parties. The proposal of the RdC downsizing reform united not only all the right-wing political forces but also some liberal, pro-market parties and part of the center-left coalition. Through a comparative perspective, the article aims at investigating the connection between the attention devoted by the Italian media (notably, prime time newscasts of main Italian tv channels) to Citizenship Income and the political positions on the matter taken by political members and parties. The research relies on qualitative methods: content and text analysis. The source of data collection will be the Osservatorio di Pavia, a research institute specialized in media monitoring and communication analysis. After coding the positioning of each political party, with respect to the policies to be adopted to reform, abolish or keep the RdC, our aim is to scrutinize any changes with respect to these positions from the beginning of the political discussion around the measure until its abolition (2018-2023).

This seminar is part of the POLS Parties, Voters and Elections Seminar (PVES) Seminar Series
(Organizing Committee: Cristiano Vezzoni, Allessandro Pellegata, Jessica Rosco)

For an overview of the PhD Political Studies Seminar Series, click HERE
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