Abstract

For a long time, the approach to populism has been that of its «pathologization». The hidden motive of this «stigma» was that in complex societies solutions are necessarily «technical», or at least sectorial, specific: there are no systematic, truly divisive questions. Populism would be the result of the miscomprehension of such alleged «objective» truth. A vision which, beyond being contradicted by the failure of technocratic economical receipts, deactivates democracy, depriving politics of any sense. Luckily enough, the traditional analytical approach has been recently overcame, with the postulation of a true «populist reason». In my opinion it is more useful to speak of populist «reasons», some of which I highlight in this paper.