Abstract

In this essay the Author focuses his attention on mechanisms and effects of the new media - Information and Computer Technologies - on Italian politics. On one side he describes the "5-Stars Movement" founded and led by the comedian Beppe Grillo, in its strong difficulty in balancing between direct democracy and populism and lack of transparency. On the other side, the parallel recent past of the Democratic Party shows a party more and more inclined towards charismatic and personal dynamics, that seems to have lost or abandoned the idea of building paths of a new political participation.