Identity and politics in Italy and Argentina

Abstract

Politics in many Western democracies have become increasingly personalized; as a consequence, the individual personalities of voters and their social identity are now essential in order to understand political choices. This essay explores the role of social and personal identity, by relating such factors as one’s family, occupation, class consciousness, religion, and personality in general to political choices in order to understand the recent cultural changes in the political scenarios in Italy and Argentina. This research is based on almost 7,000 face-to-face interviews collected between Italy and Argentina from 2014 to 2020.