eventi_rps_multi_inglese
19-21 settembre 2013, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS)
19-21 settembre 2013, Università della Calabria, Arcavacata di Rende (CS)
In un tempo in cui l’incertezza sul futuro condiziona drammaticamente l’Unione Europea la conferenza si interroga sulla sua integrazione sociale e politica.
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politiche familiari
corso di vita
mercato del lavoro
welfare state
famiglia
economia
welfare locale
cittadinanza
politiche socio-assistenziali
politiche sociali
anziani
occupazione
politiche per la non autosufficienza
povertà
sistema socio-sanitario
servizi sociali
protezione sociale
welfare
immigrazione
Europa
Italia
sindacato
governance
lavoro
Unione europea
Populisms in Europe
Causes, national characteristics, role of policies
1
2012
January - March
editor's note
Description
Scritto da:
Making use of the perspectives of different disciplines, the challenge is to trace and explore the relation between populism and policies, which so far has not been much examined. Political commentators, sociologists and trade unionists all discuss this subject, bringing to the discussion analytical approaches that all too often remain out of touch with each other and, in this particular case, are held together by the shared desire to introduce to the analysis of present-day populisms the usually undervalued variable of social policy. As well as questioning the political analysis of the problems, institutions and actors in present-day western democracies, populism has an obvious response in the ideal, symbolic, cultural and practical universes of local policies, including those of security. In addition, the decision-making and policy-making powers that the European Union now has over national governments encourages those who use simplification and local issues as means of gathering support.
It is striking how the present-day geo-political scene in Europe is marked by xenophobic political and populist formations, which are a serious challenge to liberal democracies.
To buy this issue go to the italian version
Italy. Populisms: historical roots and problems of democracy
How did we become populists?
Just as Italy has seen an imperfect version of consensual democracy, based on coalitions between parties, and a version of neo-corporatism no less imperfect and incomplete, so it has experienced a partial and sketchy version both of new free-market policies, and of post-party based
and majority democracy. To describe this imperfection it has become customary to refer to the dilemma of populism/anti-politics, explaining its problems exclusively in terms of politics. This is a misleading simplification, as the reasons run much deeper. So-called populism is an offshoot of the problematic Italian transition from Fordism to post-Fordism, of the changes caused by this transition n
the texture of Italian society, as well as of the adventurous transition from a consensual to a majority system. The fragility of the economy and the weakness of politics were handled, and combated are plausible explanations for the radicalization rightwards of part of the electorate and the party programmes, as well as the style adopted by Berlusconi.
Populisms in Italy
In the last twenty years conditions favourable to populism in Europe have been created by a combination of two processes: a) the crisis of the mass parties and the transition from the «democracy of the parties» to the «democracy of the public»; b) the effects of globalizations, which have caused rapid changes in all national contexts, creating new problems and new social fractures, which have been difficult for the traditional parties to manage. In Italy populism has had more space and more influence than in other democratic countries because of the crisis and dissolution of the mass parties of the First Republic. Two kinds of populism established themselves in Italy. The first, the «regional populism» of the Northern League, which reacted to the potential fractures centre/fringes, North/South, and Italians/immigrants in a populist spirit. The second is the «media populism» of Berlusconi, who used the techniques of commercial marketing to bridge the distance between political leaders and citizens,
and turned every election into a popular plebiscite around himself.
For a Critique of Post-modern Populism
The essay brings out how, with the fall of the parties, populism changed
from being a merely deviant form to becoming the mark of a fragile
democracy manoeuvred by the deceitful narratives of the leaders. Personalization,
the charismatic leader, and the body that seduces through
the imagination, are the result of a profound lack of political construction
and social subjectivity. The author traces the origins of Italian neopopulism
in the combination of politics and the economy, and attributes
its victory to the lack of social subjects able to give new forms to
conflict, and party structures able to mediate between the state and society.
In this sense, the alternative to populism is, on the one hand, a rediscovered
capacity to return to mediation, and, on the other, the recovery
of the functional differentiation between politics and the economy.
Italy. Local exclusion and control policies as a populist opportunity for consensus
Leading separate lives. Local exclusion policies for immigrants
In Italy, as in other countries of southern Europe, immigration in the last
twenty years has found many opportunities in the labour market, both
official and unofficial. More recently, however, the government has
toughened its policies towards immigration, although in practice the implementation
of the measures has been very different from the rhetoric,
particularly on the key theme of unauthorized immigration. But there
has also been an increase in local measures against immigrants, particularly
in the regions of northern Italy, where immigrants are most integrated
into the labour market and the urban texture: measures to limit
access to benefits and social services to Italian citizens; extremely noisy
campaigns to combat illegal immigration, to the point of encouraging
tip-offs to the authorities and house-to-house checks; bans on the
opening of places of worship by Muslims; and restrictive regulations for
ethnic businesses. Often these measures are later revoked, whether because
of the mobilization of pro-immigrant opinion, or intervention by
the courts or other officials, but they help spread a climate of mistrust and
ill-feeling.
The «Emergency» of Exclusion and Local Control of Immigration
In recent years many mayors have claimed the right to self-government
as regards at the registry office residence of migrants. They had one
very specific objective in this: restricting immigrant access to social
rights. With the aim of regulating domicile, administrators have made
use of a particular legal instrument: by-laws, which have been justified
on the basis of a supposed increase of immigration in the area. As the
essay will try to show, this policy of the mayors is a premise for acting
forms of populism addressed to increase consensus amongst the italian
local population, whose specific features will be looked at in detail.
Urban Safety and Zero Tolerance
As has happened in other western countries, in Italy too the theme of
the perception of security and the connected demand for security by citizens has assumed a central role in the political debate. The response
of the institutions to this demand, both in terms of rhetoric
and practice, has shown the effects of the politicization of this issue,
which is tempting for the mass media and politicians, and subject to
the typical dynamics of populism. The specifics of the Italian situation
are in the role played in the last twenty zears by local bodies, particularly
mayors, in constructing the theme of urban security. It has been
described both in terms of precautionary measures and programmes
to improve the quality of life and the city itself, and in punitive terms,
with references to the slogan of «zero tolerance». The year 2007, on
the wave of a series of savage crimes in Rome, was decisive for the
success of the second of these two readings, the alarmist and emotional
one, which included elements of xenophobia. On this occasion
the centre-left proved incapable of finding its own independent, effective
discourse on the theme of urban security.
Discussion topic
Civic Spirit and Trust in the Institutions. The Role of Politics in the Creation (or Destruction) of Social Capital
Research on civic culture and social capital in Italy has supplied discordant
results. Both have traditionally been thought of as low. More
recently some data has confirmed this view, though others question it.
The article deals with one aspect of this subject, the construction of
social capital, and in particular the ways in which politics can make a
contribution. The idea that is presented is that civic culture (institutional
social capital) is the result of processes to which politics can
contribute if power is used as a resource to generate additional utility
– i.e. public goods. The final part analyses the role played by politics
in Italy in the period of the so-called Second Republic.
COMPARISON – Reflections on populism trade unions and democracy
Reflections on Populism, Trade Unions and Democracy
The three pieces that follow by Morena Piccinini, Riccardo Terzi and
Mario Tronti, are based on thoughts already presented by them at the Forum.
Morena Piccinini’s contribution reflects above all on the «inverse» relations
between populisms and universalistic social policies, underlining
the unions’ role in promoting the latter, and so also promoting
and safeguarding democratic systems.
Riccardo Terzi’s thoughts criticize the idea of populism as the only
definition of a differentiated variety of phenomena, movements and
parties that – being also the consequence of contemporary social
fragmentation – should not be combated on the moralistic or «metaphysical
» plane of ideas, but starting from concrete social change.
reconstructs the (altered) nexuses between the idea of a people and populist action and
offers some highly topical thoughts on the commitment and strategies
that politics should adopt to reconstruct the damaged ties between
society and institutions, political choice and organized representation.
European countries. Populisms and social policies: correlations?
The Populist Parties on the European Political Scene. Introductory Comments
After giving a theoretical account of the phenomenon, the author
looks at the reasons that have led to the rise of populist parties in
Europe; these include the crisis of the Fordist model of industrial
output and the resulting changes that have broken up the old classes,
introducing an ever more noticeable fragmentation of the great social
groupings on which the mass parties were founded. She underlines,
on the one hand, how we are faced with political forces that have
quickly understood the emerging unease; on the other hand, she
shows how the populist parties have promptly occupied the political
vacuum left by the traditional ones. However, what they offer is inadequate
to the challenges they are faced with and that require the recovery
of the function of aggregation the parties once performed, with the aim of offering once again a prospect that can give faith in the future.
Populism’s Challenge to Liberal Democracy
Starting from reflections on the success of populist parties in Europe,
which have recently been part of the government in various countries,
including Italy, this article discuss the challenge they involve for the
fundamental principles of liberal democracy, which can be summed
up in the principle of «limited (restrained) majority rule». By analysing
some parts of a questionnaire circulated among members of the Northern
league and the Swiss Svp we can evaluate the importance the
question of immigration/«security» and «identity» questions like the
defence of dialects and traditions have recently had in attracting some
sectors of the electorate towards populist parties. On the basis of the
questionnaire, the article also examines what the supporters of populist
parties think of their actions on these topics when in government.
In conclusion, the article claims that, while the concept of «representation
» is compatible with populist ideology, the same cannot be said
as regards the fundamental principles of liberal democracy.
Austerity and Authoritarianism: Unpopular Popularism in the United Kingdom
The essay starts from the enigma of the contemporary forms of
populism expressed by the Uk’s coalition government: how do we
interpret an unpopular populism? It highlights some principal features
of the discourse and practice characterizing the Coalition’s policies,
defining a somewhat unstable mixture of strategies aimed at legitimating
the government itself and the austerity polices of cuts in public
spending and reform of the public services. It suggests that the
populist aspects are part of a wider repertoire, which speaks in particular
the language of making a virtue of necessity and social
authoritarianism. This mixture of austerity, populism and authoritarianism is linked to analyses of the past on Thatcherism and «authoritarian populism» in the Uk. The final section of the essay reflects once again on the enigma of an unpopular populism, bringing out how the Coalition’s populism does not seem to receive support. Does this mean that the Coalition project is to be interpreted as a political mobilization
that has failed or as a demobilization that has succeeded?
Crisis of modernity. The case of Jean-Marie Le Pen’s Front National
The emergence of populisms in Europe in the 1980s reveals a particular
socio-political context that is the background of the crisis of
modernity. Contemporary democracies manifest problems and contradictions
that touch various levels, from the economic to the specifically
political. In this scenario various movements and populist
parties arise and propagate themselves, with similar characteristics and
specific features linked to their national contexts. J.M. Le Pen’s Front
National is an emblematic example for its importance, support and
duration. It plays on some basic concepts: appeal to the people, both
as a means of protest and as a badge of identity, hostility to immigration,
fiery nationalism tending to xenophobia, and the celebration of
French purity and grandeur. Sarkozy’s Presidency, which is now
coming to an end, has used several themes of the populist discourse
on the problems of security, immigration and national identity, thus
achieving a sort of institutionalization of populism, cleansed of its
more extreme and unacceptable features.
Phoenix populism in post-communist Romania
In the last twenty years Romania has been striking for the remarkable
number of political parties that make up the heterogeneous populist
forces in the country. In an attempt to explain the capacity of this
genre of populism to reinvent itself in various forms, the analysis
sketches out a classification of the various populist formulas of Romanian
post-communism, looking both at the genealogical aspects and at the mechanisms of post-communism that encourage its growth.
It points to an osmosis between populism’s strong roots and the
weaknesses of democracy, in the sense that we cannot define what is
the cause of what. It seems that the mixture of post-communist democracy,
which is still being consolidated, and the populist genre has
achieved a certain balance. There is a symbiosis between dêmos and
éthnos and the visibility of the leader as strategies for going beyond
the classical forms of mediation. Although populism is subject to
constant criticism, no structural obstacle can be found, and populist
deviations have now become mainstream procedures.
Nordic Countries: New Right, Social Representation and Welfare
The «parity» between capital and labour is the basis of the European
social model, particularly the Nordic one. It ensures social representation,
distinction of interests regarding identity and ideology, and a
process of regulation of society and the economy. As representation is
less pervasive in parity, this has allowed the new right to play on
questions of fear, identity and anti-politics, presenting itself a champion
of these questions, which are seen in terms of ethnic identity.
But despite what is proclaimed, both by the national-populists and
some sterile socio-political models, it was never the (mythological)
Northern uniformity that produced the regulated social model of
Nordic Countries, but the exact opposite: the social model has produced
identity, inclusion and regulation. Inverting cause and effect is
to misunderstand the Nordic countries and their populism.
Off topic
Riforming Isee: Lessons from the Last Decade
The essay analyses the data and the main critical features of the Isee
(Indicator of Equivalent Economic Situation) in the light of the data
supplied each year by ministerial reports after a decade of the application
of the present indicator. These show, among other things, a notable increase in the number of people by the self-assessment form,
the expansion not only of national, but also regional and municipal
services, this applying to all regions (though with a notable prevalence
in the south of the country) and the growth in the variety of uses.
The need to reform this instrument derives more from its success
than its limitations. The uses of the Isee will soon be extended in the
light of three further aims envisaged by the government decree
201/2011 «Salva Italia», which makes important innovations in the
way of determining the Isee in relation to the concept of income.
Isee’s data-base, which at present is of those requesting a discount on
services, will in future also include the services actually conceded, in
an attempt to improve the monitoring of services and the system of
controls.
Features
Observatory Europa
OBSERVATORY EUROPA. Periodical Note of Information on the Main News Concerning the Eu’s Social Action
The final months of 2011 saw a strengthening in European coordination
of economic and budgetary policy. Austerity still seems to be
Europe’s main aim. Given their impact on the social dimension of the
Eu and the lives of its citizens, much of this edition of «Observatory
Europa» will be on this subject, with analyses of the more specifically
social topics: unemployment is obviously a central theme, on a par
with industrial reorganization, assistance to the more vulnerable
members of society, and the provision of services of general economic
interest. This number will also look at the current state of the
implementation of community law in Italy: unfortunately, Italy still
seems to be at the bottom of the class.
