Populism and the Italian right

Segnalazione bibliografica.

Acta Politca (April 2011), n.46: pp. 158-179

Autori: Carlo Ruzza, Stefano Fella

Abstract

This paper documents and analyses how populist discourse was used in very different ways by political entrepreneurs of the Italian right, leading to three specific manifestations. The empirical range of populist ideologies is identified through a frame analysis of party materials and connected to the varying political and cultural opportunities of different kinds of parties. However, it is argued that at the same time a common reliance on some common populist tenets constituted an innovative strategy of the Italian right, and that as an ideology one of it’s distinctive functions has been to act as a conceptual glue in a coalition which would otherwise be deeply internally divided.

Full text: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/ap/journal/v46/n2/full/ap20115a.html