The Main Trends of Party Building in Italian Populism of the Second Republic Regarding the Context of Partitocrazia (1994–2022)

Abstract

The article analyzes the main trends in the party development of the populist parties of the Second Italian Republic from its birth to the 2022 elections. In the context of the phenomenon of populism, Italy is of particular interest as a country where populists have become the dominant force in the party-political system since the fall of the First Republic. In the early 1990s the regime known as "partitocrazia" collapsed, a regime of mass parties that had woven their networks throughout Italian society in the second half of the 20th century. In this regard, it is of scientific interest to examine how the populists, who were active critics of partitocrazia, have emerged as a force for building alternative forms of political organization in place of those associated with the previous regime. Through historical-comparative, content, and discourse analysis, the author identifies the main characteristic features of the populist parties of the Second Republic and reveals not only the novelty in the forms of party organization but also a significant degree of continuity between the critics of the old mass parties and those who replaced them.