Multiple Populisms Italy as Democracy's Mirror

This book provides a comprehensive interpretation of the multiple manifestations of populism using Italy, the only country amongst consolidated constitutional democracies in which populist political forces have been in government on various occasions since the early 1990s, as the starting point and benchmark.

Populism is a complex, multi-faceted political phenomenon which redefines many of the essential characteristics of democracy; participation, representation, and political conflict. This book considers contemporary versions of populism that pose a real challenge to representative and constitutional democracy. Contributors provide an integrative interpretation of populism and analyse its principal historical, social and politico-legal variables to provide a multi-dimensional reflection on the concept of populism, comprehensive analysis of the populist phenomenon and a theoretical and comparative perspective on the diverse political experiences of populism.

Based on conceptual and interdisciplinary reflections from expert authors, this book will be of great interest to scholars and post-graduate students of cultural studies, European studies, political sociology, political science, comparative politics, political philosophy, and political theory with an interest in a comparative and interdisciplinary theory of populism and its manifestations.

Introduction Multiple Populisms. Italy as Democracy’s Mirror Part 1 Which People for What Form of Democracy? Chapter 1 The Construction of the People Chapter 2 Neo-Populism and the Subversion of Democratic Quality Chapter 3 Depoliticization, Anti-politics and the Moral People Part. 2 Populism and the Transformation of Parties Chapter 4 Anti-party-ism as a Structural Component of Italian Democracy Chapter 5 "Particracy": The Pre-Populist Critique of Party Democracy, and Its Implications Chapter 6 Populist Anti-party Parties Part. 3 Populism and the Transformation of the Public Sphere Chapter 7 Technopopulism and Direct Representation Chapter 8 Intellectuals and Cultural Populism Chapter 9 Penal Populism in the Multi-populist Context of Italy Part. 4 Populism and the Transformation of Politics Chapter 10 Citizen Democracy. "New Politics" in "New Participation" Models Chapter 11 The Populist Assault on the Constitution Chapter 12 Four Italian Populisms

Manuel Anselmi is currently Researcher at Unitelma Sapienza of Rome, as well as Affiliate Researcher at King's College in London and a member of the Centre for Conflict and Participation Studies of LUISS in Rome.

Paul Blokker is Associate Professor in political sociology at the Department of Sociology and Business Law, University of Bologna, Italy. He is also research coordinator at the Institute of Sociological Studies, Charles University Prague, Czechia.