Personalizzazione della politica e comportamento elettorale. Con una ricerca sulle elezioni comunali

The article is divided into three parts. The first part reviews the literature on the personalisation of politics, splitting this concept into five components (presidentialisation of institutions, leaderisation of parties, personalisation of political communication, political marketing, and the vote) and discussing the way into which politicians and parties interact with the media and the public. The second part concentrates on the literature on the personalisation of the vote in Italy before and after the electoral reforms of the Nineties. The third part presents empirical data on the personalisation of the vote in Italian local elections (424 cities). The direct election of the mayors and the opportunity to cast a preference voting give way to personalisation in all the country, but the concept denotes different empirical referents in different areas, namely in the Centre-North and in the South. In addition, the “personalisation” and “attraction” indexes, that aim at measuring the strength of the candidates vis-a-vis parties and the other candidates, show that incumbent mayors have a clear impact on the competition.