Fratelli d’Italia: for ‘the people’ and only for ‘the people’
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2024-09-03
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en
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In this thesis the influence of populist parties, that are the biggest in government coalitions, on liberal democracy is analysed. This was done through a case study of Fratelli d’Italia, a populist radical-right party that is the biggest party in current Italian government. In the first part of this thesis the concepts of populism and liberal democracy were defined. There are multiple approaches to the concept of populism, in this thesis the ideational approach is chosen as the main approach. This approach looks at populism as a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately divided into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, 'the pure people' versus 'the corrupt elite,' and argues that politics should be an expression of the general will of the people.
Following to this the term liberal democracy was split into eight categories to measure the concept. These categories are effective participation, voting equality, enlightened understanding, inclusion of all adults, constraining of executive power, the rule of law, representative representatives and control of the agenda and will serve as indicators for liberal democracy for the remainder of this thesis. Fratelli d’Italia. is a populist party because of their heritage from other populist parties and because their style and party programme fit within the frames of the ideational approach of populism. Parts of their popularity can be explained by the Italian context in which they operate, which can be seen as a fertile breeding place for populism. In the analysis of the actions of Fratelli d’Italia while in government, it can be concluded that on five of the eight indicators for liberal democracy, Fratelli d’Italia is influencing liberal democracy by threatening its core characteristics . These threats can mostly be explained because of actions that are typical for populist parties, therefore it can be concluded that populist parties, that are the biggest in government, influence liberal democracy in a negative way. However, some restraint to generalize these results is required, since the Italian political system allows for populist parties to ‘occupy’ the state more easily than other Western-European countries.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen