The Italian Populist Coalition in Government: Testing Theories of Populism

• In Event: Populism, Italian Style

Abstract

The Conte government in Italy is unique in Western Europe in being composed exclusively of populist parties. As such, it has become an ideal test case to adjudicate theoretical debates on populism and governmental responsibility. Specifically, attention has focused on two interrelated themes: the challenges populism represents for the quality of democracy, and for the neoliberal economic consensus. Is populism a form of virtual politics, a re-enactment of sovereignty meant to mask the fact that actual decision-making power has been decisively drained out of democratic institutions, as argued recently by Ingolfur Blühdorn & Felix Butzlaff? Or is populism a first, inchoate response to the crisis of that very governance model that has precluded any real economic policy alternatives, as proposed by Jonathan Hopkin & Mark Blyth? The present paper intends to contribute to the debate through a case study of three signal policies of the Italian populist government: Minister Riccardo Fraccaro’s plan for a constitutional reform introducing citizen’s ballot initiatives (referendum propositivi), the flagship universal basic income measure (reddito di cittadinanza), and the similarly defining anti-immigration package (decreto sicurezza). Interpreting these issues as key symbolic politics for the government coalition, with a clear bearing on the two themes mentioned above, we study their roll-out, implementation, and communication through three methodological tools: an analysis of parliamentary debate, a historical contextualization within the longue durée of Italian anti-political sentiment (cf. Giovanni Orsina), and a series of semi-structured interviews with mid-level practitioners in the run-up to the European elections of May 2019. Adopting the theoretical framework developed by Matt Wood & Matthew Flinders, we will examine the dynamics of politicization, depoliticization, and re-politicization inherent in these proposals, and what their outcome portends for the future of populist politics in Italy.

References:
Blühdorn, I., Butzlaff, F., 2018. “Rethinking Populism: Peak democracy, liquid identity and the performance of sovereignty.” European Journal of Social Theory online, DOI: 10.1177/1368431017754057.
Hopkin, J., Blyth, M., 2018. “The Global Economics of European Populism: Growth Regimes and Party System Change in Europe.” (The Government and Opposition/Leonard Schapiro Lecture 2017), Government and Opposition online, DOI: 10.1017/gov.2018.43.
Orsina, G., 2017. “Perfectionism Without Politics. Politicisation, Depoliticisation, and Political History.” Ricerche di storia politica (special issue), 75–86.
Wood, M., Flinders, M., 2014. “Rethinking depoliticisation: beyond the governmental.” Policy & Politics 42, 151–170.

Authors

• Matteo Fabio Nels Giglioli, Università di Bologna

• Gianfranco Baldini