ABSTRACT
Populism is widely understood as a disruptive phenomenon, contesting constitutional rules, the rule of law, and the separation of powers. The chapter contributes to the conceptualization and analysis of the populist phenomenon in relation to modern constitutionalism. The intention is to bring out not only the disruptive dimension of populism and its reactionary nature (with regard to liberal constitutionalism) but equally to highlight the alternative approach to constitutionalism populism represents. The chapter ‘deconstructs’ populism in its relation to constitutionalism, in arguing that the promotion of majoritarianism constitutes the populists’ main relation to the constitution, that populists portray an instrumentalist, political, and ad hoc relation to the law, and that populists are deeply sceptical with regard to the formalistic, positivistic approach to the law in liberal constitutionalism. Subsequently, populist tendencies in relation to constitutionalism are explored in the context of the Italian ‘season of constitutional reform’ (which started in the early 1990s). The analysis will regard both the constitutional politics and modes and procedures of two reform processes (Berlusconi’s and Renzi’s attempts at reform in 2005–6 and 2014–16, respectively) and the terms of the substance of reforms, regarding issues of strong leadership, the reduction of checks and balances, and the simplification of politics.
