Populism and the Parliament-Government Relationships in Italy

Populism is not a new phenomenon for many Parliaments. However, the gradual disclosure of parliamentary procedures, the advent of new ICTs and of social media, and their use by individual MPs autonomously and regardless from the institutional channels of communication have further contributed to make today’s populism a real challenge for Parliaments as representative institutions. The Italian case represents a privileged observatory from which to look at how a Parliament copes with and is transformed by the populist “modus operandi”, in particular after the 2018 political elections and the government coalition agreement between populist parties. After a brief historical overview of the relationship between the Italian Parliament and populism, the paper will focus on the current Italian Parliament to critically evaluate if and how populism has affected the organisation of parliamentary activity and the transparency regime. Finally, the contribution will elaborate on the change that populism has triggered on the parliamentary outputs – as the debate on penal populism has elucidated and the saga on the approval of the budget for 2019 has shown – and on the mechanisms of parliamentary accountability.