Social Movements’ Demands in Institutional Settings: Varieties of Policy Impact by Movement Parties in Italy and Germany

This article explores the patterns of political representation by movement parties and their influence on policy-making in a comparative manner by investigating policy successes of four movement parties – two in Germany (AfD, die Grünen) and two in Italy (M5S, Federazione dei Verdi), - against the policy expectations of the social movements they represent. It shows that movement parties can achieve policy influence and help transmit policy demands of their associated social movements into institutions in other ways than through a powerful position in the government or in parliament. This demonstrates that a party does not have to be in a governing coalition to achieve policy success, nor does being in a government coalition at the time of policy adoption ensure policy survival in the long-term. On the contrary, parties in opposition or with low representation in parliament are able to achieve important policy impact, despite their relatively low popularity in the elections prior or following the adoption of a particular policy. Policy success can be attributed to a number of diverse factors: close alignment with the movement, impact on the agenda-setting stage through implicit or explicit influence of the party, cooptation of policy issues by established political parties, and direct participation in policy-making. The latter, however, does not by itself ensure long-term sustainability of the policy success. We elaborate on the implications of this research on theories of democratic representation, coalition governance, and public policy.