Organisational, Renowned, and Charismatic Leaders: Three Types of Resources


Abstract


Emerging research on civil society elites has highlighted the presence of elitist tendencies in European civil societies with a growing concentration of political and economic resources in the hands of small groups of major organizations and leaders. Building upon this strand of research, this article aims at studying the power stratification of Italian civil society-third sector through a systematic analysis of the distribution of three specific types of resources, namely organisational resources, reputation, and public visibility. For this purpose, we combine three methodological approaches. The study firstly draws on a large-scale mapping of civil society organizations and leaders at national level and follows the so-called "positional method". The second approach that we adopt in this study is the reputational analysis, based on a national survey conducted in 2021 which targeted 680 civil society leaders of organisations based on the same mapping of the positional approach. The third approach is the claims-making analysis, which consists in retrieving CS actors' interventions on a given issue in the public domain drawing from media sources. Through the combination of these three methodological approaches, the study highlights the stratification of Italian civil society and the multi- dimensionality of power and influence among Italian Civil society elites. It also shows how the distribution of power resources lays on three main types of leaders-elites: the organizational leader, the renowned leader and the charismatic leader.

DOI Code: 10.1285/i20356609v17i2p368

Keywords: Civil society; Elites; Italy; Leadership; Third Sector

References


Antonucci M. C. (2014), Lobbying e terzo settore: un binomio possibile? Edizioni Nuova Cultura, Roma, 2014, pp. 156

Bassoli M., M. Cinalli, and M. Giugni (2014), Who Are the Powerful Actors? An Analysis of Brokerage in the Networks of Organizations Dealing with Unemployment and Precariousness, In S. Baglioni, and M. Giugni (eds.), Civil Society Organizations, Unemployment, and Precarity in Europe. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 157–175.

Benford R. and D. Snow (2000), “Framing processes and social movements: An overview and assessment”, Annual Review of Sociology, 26: 611–639.

Biorcio R. and T. Vitale (2016), Italia Civile. Associazionismo, partecipazione e politica.

Donzelli Editore, Roma.

Borzaga, C. (2004), From Suffocation to Re-emergence: The Evolution of the Italian Third Sector, in A. Evers, and J.-L. Laville (eds), The Third Sector in Europe (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar).

Borzaga, C., and L. Fazzi (2011), “Processes of institutionalisation and differentiation in the Italian third sector”, Voluntas, 22 (3), 409 - 427.

Cinalli M., and M. Giugni (2011), Institutional opportunities, discursive opportunities, and the political participation of migrants in European cities, In L. Morales and M. Giugni (eds.) Social Capital, Political Participation and Migration in Europe: Making Multicultural Democracy Work?, Houndmills, UK: Palgrave, pp. 43–62.

Cinalli M., and M. Giugni (2013), “Public discourses about Islam and Muslims in Europe”, Ethniciticies, 13(2): 131-146.

Cohen J. L., and A. Arato (1992), Civil Society and Political Theory. The MIT Press.

Dahl R. (1961), Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Diani M. (2003), Leaders’ or brokers? Positions and influence in social movement networks, In M. Diani and D. McAdam (eds.), Social movements and Social Networks: Relational Approaches to Collective Action. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 105-122.

Higley J., and M. G. Burton (2006), Elite Foundations of Liberal Democracy. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.

Hoffman-Lange U. (2017), Methods of Elite Identification, in H. Best and J. Higley (eds.) The Palgrave handbook of political elites, London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Hunter F. (1953), Community power structure: A study of decision makers. Chapel Hill: University

of North Carolina Press.

Johansson, H. and A. Uhlin (2020), Civil society elites: a research Agenda, Politics and Governance 8(3): 82–5.

Koopmans R. and P. Statham (1999), “Political claims analysis: integrating protest event and political discourse approaches”, Mobilization, 4: 203–221.

Lindellee J. and R. Scaramuzzino (2020), “Can EU Civil Society Elites Burst the Brussels Bubble? Civil Society Leaders’ Career Trajectories”, Politics and Governance, 8(3), 86-96. doi:https://doi.org/10.17645/pag.v8i3.2995

Malinick T. E., D. B. Tindall, and M. Diani (2011), “Network centrality and social movement media coverage: A two-mode network analytic approach”, Social Networks, 35(2): 148-158.

Michels R. (2001), Political parties a sociological study of the oligarchical tendencies of modern democracy, Kitchener, Ont.: Batoche.

Mills C. W. (1956), The Power Elite, New York: Oxford University Press.

Nepstad S. E. and C. Bob (2006), “When do leaders matter? Hypotheses on leadership dynamics in social movements”, Mobilization, 11(1), 1–22.

North D. C., J. J. Wallis, and B. R. Weingast (2009), Violence and Social Orders, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; trad. it. Violenza e ordini sociali, Bologna: il Mulino, 2012.

Polizzi E., and M. Bassoli (2011), La governance all’Italiana, In E. Polizzi, and M. Bassoli (Eds.), La governance del territorio. Partecipazione e rappresentanza della società civile nelle politiche locali. Milano: Franco Angeli.

Della Porta D. and M. Diani (2006), Social Movements: An Introduction, 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell.

Ranci C., M. Pellegrino, and E. Pavolini (2009), The third sector and the policy process in Italy: between mutual accomodation and new forms of (blurred) partnership. In J. Kendall (ed.), Handbook on third sector policy in Europe: multi-level processes and organized civil society, Edward Elgar.

Santilli, C. (2022), “Researching elites in the Italian third sector: how formal position and substantial influence interact”. Voluntary sector Review.

Santilli C. and R. Scaramuzzino (2021), “Trajectories of Civil Society Leaders in Italy: Individual Careers, Organizational Structures, and Ideological Affiliations”, Sage Open, 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440211061559

Santilli C. and R. Scaramuzzino (2022), “Reshaping Alliances and Redrawing Boundaries: How International Migration Affected Italian Civil Society”, Mobilization: An International Quarterly, 27(3), 353–370. https://doi.org/10.17813/1086-671X-27-3-353

Santilli C. and R. Scaramuzzino (2024), Organisational, Reputational, and Visible Leaders: A Comparison of Three Approaches to Civil Society Elite Identification. In: Johansson H. and A. Meeuwisse (eds) Civil Society Elites. Palgrave Studies in Third Sector Research. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-40150-3_4

Scaramuzzino R. (2020), “Perception of Societal Influence Among Civil Society Leaders—An Elite Perspective”, Journal of Civil Society, 16(2), 174–190.

Scaramuzzino R. and J. Lindellee (2020), In Search for Civil Society Elites: Multi-dimensional Measure of Resource Stratification in Civil society (MMRSC). Paper presented at the ESA 6th Interim Conference (online).

Schjif H. (2013), Researching Elites: Old and New Perspectives, In Abbink, J. and T. Salverda (eds.) The Anthropology of Elites: Power, Culture, and the Complexities of Distinction, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 29-44.

Scott J. (2004), Studying Power, In K. Nash, and A. Scott (eds.), The Blackwell Companion to Political Sociology, Malden: Blackwell, pp. 82–91.

Weber M. (1997), Democracy and the countervailing powers of bureaucracy, charisma, and parliament, In E. Etzioni-Halévy (Ed.), Classes and Elites in Democracy and Democratization, New York: Garland, pp. 62–70.

Wedel J. R. (2017), “From Power Elites to Influence Elites: Resetting Elite Studies for the 21st Century”, Theory, Culture & Society, 34(5–6): 153–178.


Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.
کاغذ a4
Bookmark and Share


Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 3.0 Italia License.