Youth online: Researching the political use of the Internet in the Italian context

Between the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the last decade different phenomena (at both national and international levels) gave rise to significant changes in Italy. The post-war political system (characterised by a blocked political system excluding the Communist party from the government) collapsed, and a new bipolar party system, based on competition between two coalitions (centre-left and centre-right) arose. Yet in recent times many factors combined have contributed to a decline in trust among citizens towards national politics, political parties and institutions in Italy (Mannheimer and Sani, 2001). These factors include the weakening of ideology following the fall of the Berlin wall, the increasing importance of international politics in national arenas (due to increased financial and economic globalisation, as well as European integration), and, finally, in relation to the Italian system, political corruption scandals (Mantovani and Burnett, 1998).