Italy: A Country of Many Populisms

Italy has been often described as the "paradise of populism" because of the presence within its political systems of many parties showing populist attitudes, discourses and style. Since the beginning of the so called Second Republic and until now, the basic characters of populism can be found in some of the major Italian political actors. This essay, after discussing, on the basis of the scientic literature, the features of populism, shows as populism has influenced both the governmental coalitions and the opposition parties, in different ways: through the Identity populism of the Lega Nord, the anti-political populism of the "common man" of the Berlusconi's Forza Italia and the "neither Left nor Right" populism of Di Pietro's Italia dei valori.