ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the importance of the Radicals both in making the referendum a commonly used institution, thus transforming the intentions of parliament, and in championing the referendum as an instrument of direct democracy challenging the political elites. Thus establishing the concept of partyocracy as a popular analytical category. The chapter develops the argument that the repeated use of the referendum in Italy from 1974 to 1993 had long-term cultural, and eventually institutional significance, paving the way for the formation of a competitive, plebiscitary form of democracy in Italy. It describes that the Radicals' contribution to political innovation was highly ambiguous given that, on the one hand, such a form of democracy is neither anomalous nor without advantages in modern societies. On the other hand, serious concerns have arisen from the installation, if not yet entirely secure consolidation, of such a democracy in the period 1994—2001.
