The word populism experienced a contradictory evolution in
the last decade. From one side it has broaden its meaning, since it is now
common to hear in the political debate the allegation of “populism”, referred to those politicians who propose unrealistic solutions for complex and multifaceted problems, no matter which party he or she belongs to. From the other side, however, its application within the European party systems has been
restricted mainly (but not exclusively) to the extreme right-wing populist
(ERP) parties.
Populism has been defined as a “disease” or a “spectre” for the
Western democracies, because of its rejection of pluralism and its exclusionary
features that emerged in some European States. Less attention has been given to the effect on the political representation: in this paper, thus, I try to
emphasize, how to deal with the problem of representation vis-à-vis the
European populism and whether it can be regarded as a threat to the conception
of political representation.
