Dieci anni dopo

• Main Author: Marco Tarchi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Rosenberg & Sellier 2014-08-01
• Series: Quaderni di Sociologia
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/qds/367

Since the 1990s, Italy has been considered by many social scientists as the richest testing ground, or even as the “paradise”, of populism. Comprehension of the underlying cause of the wave that inundated Italian politics, after the breakdown of its party system caused by the Tangentopoli scandals, requires a long-term perspective in order to identify both the particular structural factors facilitating this sudden growth and the behaviour of political actors who have spread populist arguments and stereotypes. Ten years ago, an initial study – L’Italia populista, by Marco Tarchi – investigated the deep roots of this phenomenon and described its multiple faces. This article aims to reshape that analysis and shed light upon a new embodiment of the populist mentality, the movement created, inspired and led by the showman Beppe Grillo.