ABSTRACT
In the “populist shift” in Italy, the figure of the intellectual forms one of the preferred controversial targets for populist parties and equally for political organizations at large. At the same time, symbolic analysts played a leading (or at least important) role in constructing the ideological and rhetorical discourse related to the populist phenomenon. This chapter aims to analyse both levels: the dimension of anti-intellectualism as a pillar of populism and a number of case histories of populistic storytelling – from “qualunquismo” (the doctrine of Guglielmo Giannini and his party-movement) to anti-elitism (the struggle against the “casta”), from ideological disintermediation and “direct democracy” to “sovranismo” (a new form of economic and political nationalism in opposition to globalism and the European Union) – invented and managed by what could be called “ordinary people intellectuals” as “complementary officials” of populist leaders, parties, and movements.
