Local representative democracy and protest politics: the case of the Five-star Movement

In recent years, protest politics has become a relevant phenomenon in various European countries. Italy has witnessed the rise of the Five-star Movement (M5S), an anti-establishment party which, at the 2013 general election, obtained one fourth of the total votes. However, the story of this ‘party-movement’ started at the local level, as a civic network aimed at changing administrative practices in municipal government. By using an original dataset on representation in 671 Italian municipalities in the period from 2010 to 2014, this article aims to explain not only the sub-national political success of the M5S but also the challenges and contradictions that a newly formed movement faces in multi-level electoral arenas.