Social Movements and Referendums from Below: Direct Democracy in the Neoliberal Crisis

Over recent years, social movements formed in response to European neoliberal austerity measures have played an increasingly important role in referendums. This is the first book to bridge the gap between social movement studies and research on direct democracy. It draws on social movement theory to understand the nature of popular mobilisation in referendums.

Co-authored by one of the world's leading authorities on social movements, the book uses unique case studies such as the referendum on independence in Scotland, the consultations on independence in Catalonia, the Italian referendum on water, the referendum on the Troika proposals in Greece and the referendum on the debt repayment in Iceland, to illustrate the ways the social movements that formed as a consequence of the 2008 financial crash have affected the referendums' dynamic and results. It also addresses the way in which participation from below has had a transformative impact on the organisational strategies and framing practices used in the campaigns.

Looking at general issues of democracy, as well as the political effects of neoliberalism, this topical book is ideally suited to understand the reasons for the Brexit result and will be read by a wide audience interested in social movements, referendums and democratic innovation.

Donatella Della Porta is the Founding Dean of the Faculty of Political and Social Sciences, the Director of the Center on Social Movement Studies (Cosmos) and the coordinator of the PhD program in Political Science and Sociology at the Scuola Normale Superiore in Florence.

Francis O’Connor is a Post-Doctoral Researcher at the University of Aarhus. He is currently working on patterns of Lone Actor radicalization on the PRIME project. He defended his PhD thesis "Armed Social Movements and Insurgency. The PKK and its Communities of Support" at the European University Institute in 2014. His research interests include political violence, social movements, ethno-national mobilization, labour politics and Middle East politics with a particular focus on matters related to Kurdistan and Turkey. He obtained an MSc in Middle East Politics from SOAS in 2009.

Martin Portos is at the European University Institute. He holds a degree in Political Science and Administration from the University of Santiago de Compostela and also gained an MSc in Politics Research (Comparative Government) at the University of Oxford (UK). Since 2012, he has been undertaking a full-time PhD in Political and Social Sciences at the European University Institute at Florence (Italy). His main areas of interest are: comparative politics, European comparative politics and governments, social movements, collective action and contentious politics, democratic quality and democratization processes, politics and territorial organization, nationalism and federalism.

Anna Subirats is at the European University Institute. She holds a degree in Geography from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB, Barcelona) and a MSc in Urban Studies from University College London (UCL, London). Prior to becoming a Doctoral Researcher at the Department of Political and Social Science at the European University Institute (EUI, Florence), she worked for three years as a project developer for the metropolitan planning consulting firm Barcelona Regional. Her current research focuses on the themes of urban governance, politics of urban planning, contentious politics in processes of urban transformation and urban social movements.