Italian Populism and Constitutional Law

Giacomo Delledonne is Research Fellow in Comparative Public Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. He is co-convenor of the research group on Subnational Constitutions of the International Association of Constitutional Law. He has written extensively in four languages (Italian, English, French, and Spanish). His first monograph, L'omogeneità costituzionale negli ordinamenti composti (2017), was awarded with the 10th Opera Prima-Sergio P. Panunzio Prize, organized by the Italian Association of Constitutional Law Scholars. Giuseppe Martinico is Associate Professor of Comparative Public law at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. Previously he was García Pelayo Fellow at the Centro de Estudios Politicos y Constitucionales (CEPC), Madrid, and Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute, Florence. He is also Honorary Professor at the University of Henan, China, and Research Fellow at the Centre for Studies on Federalism, Turin. Matteo Monti is a researcher in the Faculty of Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy. Fabio Pacini is Research Fellow in Constitutional Law at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, and Adjunct Professor of Comparative Law at the Tuscia University, Italy. He coordinates a research group on parliamentary law at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.

Chapter 1. Introduction: A Constitutional Viewpoint on Italian Populism (Giacomo Delledonne, Giuseppe Martinico, Matteo Monti and Fabio Pacini).- Chapter 2. Populism and Constitutional Reform. The Case of Italy (Paul Blokker).- Part I.- Chapter 3. Is there a populist turn in the Italian Parliament? Continuity and discontinuity in the non-legislative procedures (Cristina Fasone).- Chapter 4. Populism and Referendum: The Italian Debate from a Comparative Perspective (Giuseppe Martinico).- Chapter 5. Populism and Constitutional Amendment (Pietro Faraguna).- Chapter 6. Populism and Law-making Process (Fabio Pacini).- Chapter 7. Populism and Government: Continuity and Paradoxes in the Yellow-Green Experiment (Giacomo Delledonne).- Chapter 8. "Kicking the Can down the Road". Deferring Fiscal Adjustment as a Premise for Italian Budgetary Populism (Giovanni Boggero).- Part II.- Chapter 9. Italian Populism and Fake News on the Internet: A New Political Weapon in the Public Discourse (Matteo Monti).- Chapter 10. Rise of Populism and the Five Star Movement model: An Italian Case Study (Marco Bassini).- Chapter 11. Populism, Science and the Italian Democracy (Marta Tomasi).- Chapter 12. "Le cose sono un po' più complesse". Constitutional Law and Religion in Italy and the populist challenge (Pasquale Annicchino).- Chapter 13. The Italian Way to Migration: Was It "True" Populism? Populist Policies As Constitutional Antigens (Simone Penasa).- Chapter 14. Does a sub-state dimension of populism exist? (Alessandro Sterpa).- Chapter 15. Populism and Criminal Justice in Italy (Nicola Selvaggi).

"This collection of essays edited by Giacomo Delledonne, Giuseppe Martinico, Matteo Monti and Fabio Pacini raises fundamental questions about the relationship between populism and constitutional law, one of the most debated questions in comparative constitutional studies of the last decade." (Eleonora Bottini, iconnectblog.com, April 24, 2021)

"The authors of this excellent book, dealing with more democratic, 'true' populism, convincingly argue that the constitutional developments in the last decades in Italy have been compatible with the ideals of constitutionalism despite the populist arguments and failed reforms." (Gábor Halmai, Zeitschrift für öffentliches Recht, Vol. 75, 2020)

"Having analyzed the chapters, all well written and structured, one can only applaud the effort, brilliantly successful, of the authors to examine, in a timely and thorough manner, what has been the impact of populism on our constitutional system." (Ferdinando La Placa, Forum di Quaderni Costituzionali, Issue 2, 2020)