Filtering Populist Claims to Fight Populism

Giuseppe Martinico is Full Professor of Comparative Public Law at the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies. Previously, he was García Pelayo Fellow at the Centre for Political and Constitutional Studies (CEPC), Madrid, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence.

• 1. Populist Constitutionalism: An Oxymoron? 2. Italy and Post-World War II Constitutionalism; 3. Mimetism and Parasitism in Action: Sovereignism and Identity Politics versus Post WWII – Constitutional Openness; 4. Mimetism and Parasitism in Action: Politics of Immediacy and the Case of The Referendum; 5. The Assault on Representative Democracy as the Other Side of the Politics of Immediacy; 6. The Return of the Imperative Mandate?; 7. Filtering Populist Claims to Fight Populism; Final Remarks.

'Populist ideas are often confused with totalitarian ones. Professor Martinico, taking Italy as a case study, convincingly demonstrates how the two actually contradict each other at several points. Populism manipulates and instrumentalises constitutionalist ideas, and it does not simply deny them. It is a thoroughly researched, well-reasoned and clearly written book, both for those who are interested in contemporary Italian political and constitutional developments and for those who wish to understand the effects of populism on constitutional law in general.' András Jakab, Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, University of Salzburg