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Bread or Circuses? Repoliticization in the Italian Populist Government Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2020

Gianfranco Baldini Open the ORCID record for Gianfranco Baldini [Opens in a new window]  and
Matteo F.N. Giglioli Open the ORCID record for Matteo F.N. Giglioli [Opens in a new window]
Gianfranco Baldini*
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Matteo F.N. Giglioli
Affiliation:
Department of Political and Social Sciences, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: gianfranco.baldini2@unibo.it
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Abstract

The majority view within political science is that populism is best understood as a (thin) ideology. We problematize the ideational approach by broadening the scope of analysis, linking populism to the rise of long-term generalized anti-political sentiments, against interpretations that tend to tie the populist wave to conjunctural factors related to recent crises. We argue that the essence of populism lies at the intersection of the ‘material constitution’ of advanced industrial democracies (that is, how macroeconomic governance relates to democratic decision-making) and the feelings of societal alienation that are at the heart of anti-political sentiments. We show the peculiar coexistence of economic turbulence, heralded by the crisis of the cartel party and of the neoliberal economic consensus, and an appeal to a post-democratic ‘virtual politics’ of performed but ineffectual popular sovereignty. The policies of the populist coalition governing Italy in 2018–19 provide a key case to test the relevance of our arguments.

Keywords

anti-politicsdepoliticization/repoliticizationvirtual politicsdemocracy
Type
Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 2021 , pp. 505 - 524
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press

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