Are citizens’ preferences for who should govern linked to their voting behaviour? The case of Italy

[en] hile citizens’ preferences for governing actors have attracted growing interest, little is known about how these preferences relate to partisan support. Using original survey data from 5,000 Italian respondents, we show that preferences for who should govern in Italy largely align with broader European patterns. However, we also uncover distinctive associations between governing preferences and propensity to vote for the main Italian parties: preferences for experts in government are positively linked to voting for left-wing parties but not for right-wing ones. Contrary to our expectations, support for a more active role of citizens in government is only weak related to the propensity to vote for populist parties. These findings highlight the importance of contextual factors in shaping these associations.

Disciplines :

Political science, public administration & international relations

Author, co-author :

Vittori, Davide

Rojon, Sebastien

Pilet, Jean-Benoit

PAULIS, Emilien ; University of Luxembourg > Faculty of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (FHSE) > Department of Humanities (DHUM) > Philosophy

External co-authors :

yes

Language :

English

Title :

Are citizens’ preferences for who should govern linked to their voting behaviour? The case of Italy

Publication date :

30 September 2025

Journal title :

South European Society and Politics

ISSN :

1360-8746

Publisher :

Informa UK Limited

Pages :

1-27

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/13608746.2025.2558651

Funders :

European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme

Available on ORBilu :

since 02 October 2025

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