The course aims to provide students with a structured understanding of the conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes that shape electoral dynamics, as well as the social and individual mechanisms through which political opinions and voting choices are formed. Accordingly, the course also pursues another important objective: to train students to develop an autonomous capacity to interpret contemporary political dynamics. Alongside a significant theoretical component, the course is strongly oriented toward the empirical analysis of contemporary reality: it is directly linked to the activities of CISE (the Italian Centre for Electoral Studies) and includes a data analysis component.

The course has no strict prerequisites. However, in addition to the mandatory course in Italian Political System, a basic knowledge of the concepts and theories of economics, sociology, political science, and the sociology of communication, as well as some basic notions of statistics, will be useful.

The course examines the conflicts, actors, institutions, and processes that shape electoral dynamics and the social and individual mechanisms through which political opinions and voting choices are formed. It does so through a review of the international, and Italian, literature from a comparative perspective, with particular reference to Western Europe from the postwar period to the present day. All theoretical perspectives are accompanied by data and examples drawn from empirical analyses, and are discussed interactively with students, with reference to Italy and other European countries. The first part of the course is devoted to the origins of public opinion and to citizens’ identities. It explores the relationship between citizens and politics, the role of cognitive mobilization, the role of biology and psychology in opinion formation, and the sociology of voting, namely social and political identities, in relation to both traditional and new conflict dimensions. The second part of the course examines the growing role of political supply and strategies of competition, including spatial models of party competition, factors of competence and credibility (valence issues), and the increasing role of specific issues in electoral campaigns, up to the theory of issue yield. The course concludes with a focus on political representation.

The course does not require a reference textbook. Instead, for each week of the course, students will be expected to study scientific articles or book chapters, in Italian or English, made available by the instructor.

Lectures; presentation and discussion of empirical research. Student presentations of scientific articles and original data analyses based on datasets provided by the instructors.

Individual in-class presentation of a scientific article (10%). Group in-class presentation of an original data analysis (20%). Final written exam with open-ended and multiple-choice questions (70%). Attendance is compulsory. Students who do not take part in the presentations, whether individual or group, will be required to take an oral exam covering the entire course syllabus.

29/30 grade. Positive assessment of the thesis project.