IPSA is pleased to announce that Manuela Caiani will serve as keynote speaker at the IPSA Regional Conference - Wrocław 2026. Prof. Caiani will address conference delegates during the opening ceremony on 14 October 2026 | 16:45 - 18:15 | Lecture Hall | Faculty of Law, Administration & Economics (Building D) | Floor 1.
Keynote Presentation: Dynamics of Far-Right Transnationalization in Europe
The transnationalization of illiberal parties and social movements is increasingly evident in Europe. Not only do they develop transnational networks; their ideas are also spreading across borders thanks to the internet and social media platforms.
Anti-immigrant and anti-gender actors, as well as actors mobilizing in relation to various crises, in particular the Covid-19 pandemic, now convene at events internationally, which supports the diffusion of frames and strategies and contributes to international learning among these actors.
While the literature on the various types of illiberal actors and their transnationalization has been growing, research so far has tended to specialise in specific sub-sectors of the illiberal right engaging, for example, only with anti-immigrant or anti-gender actors, and focused on political parties or social movements.
Research conducted in the framework of the AUTHLIB (Neo-authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response) project seeks to connect these various threads of analysis to understand the differences and similarities characterising their transnational diffusion in terms of framing strategy, organizational contacts and networks, and mobilization events.
This discussion will seek to explain the mechanisms, channels and processes of the transnationalization of illiberal actors and ideas by focusing on different case studies explored in the AUTHLIB project.
Data on online networking of illiberals will be presented, emphasising the actors and actor types from various countries in Europe that are most engaged in transnational interactions. The common frames used by these actors on their social media platforms will also be discussed. Additionally, relying on event chronologies and interview data, we will present initial findings from a more focused, qualitative analysis of key transnational players such as the Polish Ordo Iuris or the Hungarian Center for Fundamental Rights, highlighting CPAC as the central hub of transnational cooperation.
Manuela Caiani
Manuela Caiani is Professor of Political Science at the Scuola Normale Superiore, where she directs the BACKDEM Research Center for the Study of Democratic Backsliding, a joint initiative of the Scuola Normale Superiore and the European University Institute, and is a member of the Centre on Social Movement Studies (COSMOS). She holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Florence and has held research positions at the European University Institute in Florence and the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna, as well as a Marie Curie Fellowship at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. From 2019 to 2023, she chaired the Standing Group on Political Participation and Social Movements of the Italian Political Science Association (SISP).
Caiani has coordinated and participated in numerous national and international research projects funded by Horizon Europe, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Europe for Citizens Programme, the EU Framework Programmes, PRIN, Jean Monnet. She is currently Principal Investigator of the Horizon Europe project CIDAPE – Climate, Inequality, and Democratic Action: The Force of Political Emotions (2023–2026) and recently coordinated AUTHLIB – Neo-Authoritarianisms in Europe and the Liberal Democratic Response (2022–2025).
Her research focuses on far right politics in comparative perspective, extremism and radicalism, populism and democracy, Euroscepticism, political parties and elections, social movements and political participation, and social science research methods. Her publications include, Mobilizing on the Extreme Right: Germany, Italy, and the United States (Oxford University Press, 2012, with Donatella della Porta and Claudius Wagemann); From the Radical Left to the Radical Right: Europeanization from Below in Contemporary Social Movements (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2027, with Lisa Fenner); and, The Oxford Handbook of Social Movements of the Far Right (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2027, with Jens Rydgren).
