Conclusion: The Many-Sided Constituency Communication in the Age of Post-representative Politics

The book has revealed that for the M5s and Podemos, constituency communication—although limited to the use of social media—reflects some of the problems that have emerged in new populist parties. These include the problematic coexistence of outlooks reflecting the entities’ self-conceptions as movements and as parties; the difficulty involved in reconciling the contradiction between their lack of internal pluralism and their claims to promote participatory democracy; the instrumental use of platforms to bypass the influence of party cadres and so avoid internal conflict. The PiS and the Lega, in contrast, are parties with solid organisational structures, with a long history and strong leadership. However, all the parties analysed practice direct forms of representation. This takes the form of the direct involvement of citizens in selection of the political class in the cases of the M5s and Podemos, and in selection of people embodying the parties’ values in the cases of the Lega and the PiS. Somehow, post-representation seems to be a form of hyper-representation.