Conclusion. The organisational and ideological roots of the electoral success

This chapter explains the unexpected electoral success of the Five Star Movement in the Italian general elections of 2013 by analysing three possible set of factors. First, success might be favoured by institutional conditions that make it easier for challengers of existing parties to access the competition. This is sometimes referred to as electoral contestability. Secondly, a party might profit from an innovative organisational structure that makes it easier to mobilise its electoral base, or to have access to the necessary resources (e.g. funding). In general, the organisational advantage consists of being able to better exploit some relevant change in the environment. Third, the success of a challenger can originate from its ability to intercept the expectations and needs of a segment of the electorate that existing parties are not (or are no longer) able to represent. This refers, in other words, to occupying the ‘right spot’ in the political space, one that is either genuinely new, i.e. defined by a new dimension of competition, or has been left unguarded by existing parties.