1. Introduction

This chapter introduces the book and sets its main themes: the changes introduced to politics, political participation, organisation and deliberation by Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). These two are the drivers for the rise of the Five Star Movement (M5S)—the case study of the book: the diffusion of Internet technologies but also of a sentiment of political distrust towards the political establishment. In Italy, the citizen user—technologically empowered and yet harboring a profound sense of political disempowerment—embraces the M5S claiming a more prominent political role; Internet-mediated instead of party-mediated. But ICTs empower citizen users only when political communities emerge from Internet crowds.