Society and territory: making sense of Italian populism from a historical perspective

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Michelangelo Vercesi

Italy is depicted as a populist promised land. Especially within Western Europe, Italy is an outlier in terms of support for and varieties of populist parties. Yet, common explanations of populism do not fully account for the Italian exceptionality, while single-country studies often present time-wise limited focus or anecdotical evidence. This article contributes by providing a novel interpretation of Italian populism since 1945 through a three-step process. First, the Italian populist success is theoretically linked to societal anti-parliamentarism and anti-elitism, whose roots date back to the formation of the unitary state and its institutional weakness. Second, it is argued that traditional intra-country differences in terms of voting behavior still matter when it comes to providing the opportunity structure for populist parties. Finally, a preliminary empirical analysis shows that–in line with expectations–different political traditions across the national territory are likely to determine the success of specific types of populism. The findings are relevant for the generation of new hypotheses about the societal origins of contemporary populist parties.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Contemporary European Studies
Volume31
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)111-131
Number of pages21
ISSN1478-2804
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 02.2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

    Research areas

  • Anti-institutionalism, Italian parties, Italian sub-cultures, populist types, populist voter, territorial vote
  • Politics

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Coffee Machine as a mediating technology of organization
  2. Collective Renewable Energy Prosumers and the Promises of the Energy Union
  3. Weltnomos der Zivilgesellschaft und Normalisierung des Krieges
  4. Demokratiekompetenz als berufliche Handlungskompetenz
  5. Degraded creep resistance induced by static precipitation strengthening in high-pressure die casting Mg-Al-Sm alloy
  6. Futurizing politics and the sustainability of real-world experiments
  7. Modellieren = Sachrechnen?
  8. Cognitive dissonance in sustainability scientists regarding air travel for academic purposes
  9. Stephanosporin, a "traceless" precursor of 2-Chloro-4-nitrophenol in the gasteromycete Stephanospora caroticolor
  10. Biocultural approaches to sustainability
  11. Geschäftsführung ohne Auftrag (§§ 677-687)
  12. Auctionning biodiversity conservation contracts
  13. Lernen in authentischen Situationen versus Lernen mit Texten
  14. Ende der Welt, Anfang des Bildes
  15. Corridors as a tool for linking habitats – Shortcomings and perspectives for plant conservation
  16. Three shades of 'urban-digital citizenship'
  17. Least-Cost Transportation Planning - Eine Konzeptidee
  18. Temporary Agency Work and Firm Performance
  19. Hundert Jahre und kein bisschen weise?
  20. Wo lernen Kinder mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf besser?
  21. Stranger Things II (2017)
  22. Online health information-seeking behaviour and mental well-being among Finnish higher education students during COVID-19
  23. Archival or perceived measures of environmental uncertainty?
  24. Non scholae, sed vitae discimus!
  25. Strategien des Sichtbarmachens in der Ethnografie