Populism is an idea difficult to classify. In all its variants, besides exalting the role of the people making it a constant term of reference as opposed to the corrupt elites of the representative democracy, it basically establishes a relationship without intermediaries between a leader and a mass of followers loyal to him, which replaces the complex system of relations and mediations of political, social, institutional and cultural nature typical of a representative democracy. Populism is rooted in some political movements developed at the end of the nineteenth century in Russia and in the United States. The origin of the word populism is relatively new, nevertheless, in some ways, it recalls phenomena of far more distant ages: in ancient Greece Aristotle already felt the need to warn against demagogy, understood as the typical degeneration of democracy, which consisted in a political practice aimed at achieving the approval of the people by flattering their aspirations. On the fact that populism is an ideology there are conflicting opinions. A summary analysis could dismiss populism only as the denial or the degeneration of democracy, but the push of populist movements could also have a positive indirect effect, creating an incitement to the renewal of representative institutions.
Il populismo è un concetto di difficile inquadramento, che, in tutte le sue varianti, oltre ad esaltare il ruolo del popolo rendendolo costante termine di riferimento in contrapposizione alle corrotte élite del regime rappresentativo, nella sua essenza prevede l’esistenza di un rapporto senza intermediari tra un leader e una massa di seguaci a lui fedeli, che si sostituisce al complesso sistema di relazioni e mediazioni di natura politica, sociale, istituzionale e culturale tipiche di un regime democratico-rappresentativo. Il populismo affonda le sue radici in alcuni movimenti politici sviluppatisi alla fine del XIX secolo in Russia e negli Stati Uniti. Se è vero che l’origine del termine è relativamente recente, nondimeno esso, per certi versi, richiama fenomeni di epoche molto più lontane: già ai tempi dell’antica Grecia Aristotele sentiva la necessità di mettere in guardia dalla demagogia, intesa come la tipica degenerazione della democrazia, che consisteva in una pratica politica volta ad ottenere il consenso delle masse lusingandone le aspirazioni. Un’analisi superficiale potrebbe liquidare il populismo esclusivamente come la negazione o la degenerazione della democrazia, ma la spinta dei movimenti populisti potrebbe avere anche un effetto indiretto positivo, costituendo uno stimolo al rinnovamento delle istituzioni rappresentative.
Riflessioni sul populismo
Tullio Fenucci
2019
Abstract
Populism is an idea difficult to classify. In all its variants, besides exalting the role of the people making it a constant term of reference as opposed to the corrupt elites of the representative democracy, it basically establishes a relationship without intermediaries between a leader and a mass of followers loyal to him, which replaces the complex system of relations and mediations of political, social, institutional and cultural nature typical of a representative democracy. Populism is rooted in some political movements developed at the end of the nineteenth century in Russia and in the United States. The origin of the word populism is relatively new, nevertheless, in some ways, it recalls phenomena of far more distant ages: in ancient Greece Aristotle already felt the need to warn against demagogy, understood as the typical degeneration of democracy, which consisted in a political practice aimed at achieving the approval of the people by flattering their aspirations. On the fact that populism is an ideology there are conflicting opinions. A summary analysis could dismiss populism only as the denial or the degeneration of democracy, but the push of populist movements could also have a positive indirect effect, creating an incitement to the renewal of representative institutions.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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