Between Movements and Parties: Measuring Movementism in Western Democracies

Bio

Samuele Lucidi is a PhD Fellow at LUISS Guido Carli in Rome. In 2022, he earned a BA in Political Science from Sapienza University of Rome. In 2024, he obtained an MA from the University of Florence and a second-level joint Master's degree at Scuola Normale Superiore and Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna. His research interests lie at the intersection of political party studies and social movement studies.

Abstract

This research project examines the concept of movementism in political parties, defined as the degree to which parties incorporate organizational, cultural, and action repertoires traditionally associated with social movements. It addresses three interrelated research questions: (1) To what extent does movementism vary across political parties and party families? (2) Which macro-structural and meso-level organizational factors incentivize the adoption of movementist strategies? (3) How does the process of "movementization" in established mainstream parties differ from the structural logic of canonical movement-parties?

The project develops the Party Movementism Index (PMI), an original quantitative tool designed to measure movementism as a continuous and multidimensional phenomenon across three dimensions: organization, culture, and action repertoires. Combining comparative quantitative analysis with qualitative investigation, the research seeks to map the diffusion of movementist strategies and explain the conditions under which political parties adopt them. By bridging research on political parties and social movements, the study contributes to the understanding of contemporary party transformation, the changing relationship between parties and civil society, and the increasing hybridization of institutional and contentious politics.