Lo spettro immaginario del fascismo nei populismi del XXI secolo

The prevailing orientation of the political commentators is to liquidate populism as a pathological disease of democracy, the dangerous embryo of a non-existent fascist threat. The paper distinguishes populism from the fascist ideology and the latter from the far-right post-fascist movements, trying to provide a heuristic definition of today’s populist phenomenon, far from minimalist perspectives. On an analytical level, the aim of the paper is to clarify the concepts involved, in order to avoid an instrumental and polemical use of such concepts, that are the object of the discussion.