Five Star Movement: From Dual to Multimember Leadership

This chapter is dedicated to the analysis of collective leadership in the Five Star Movement (M5S), which has been the most-voted party in Italy in the last two parliamentary elections. The empirical analysis of M5S is carried out through the analytical and theoretical framework presented in the previous theoretical chapters, emphasizing how both the genesis and the strategic choices of the party founders have affected the leadership structure of M5S up to now. More specifically, the chapter is divided into three parts: (1) the history of the party from its foundation to the current critical situation, with special attention to its peculiar organizational model and the internal distribution of power; (2) the analysis of the leadership structure through the different stages in the organizational development of M5S; (3) the discussion of the consequences of different configurations in the leadership structure on the electoral sustainability and organizational persistence of the party. The concluding remarks offer an overview of the main findings that have emerged from this case study.