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Nadia Urbinati: Populism? It’s not Fascism, and also Democracies Are “Elastic”

Professor Urbinati recently contributed to the political debate with two important volumes: Utopia Europa, published by Castelvecchi, and Me, the People. How Populism Transforms Democracy for Harvard University Press (coming soon). We met her in her office at the prestigious university in New York City to test the “political thermometer” on the health of our democracy and the challenges posed by populism, a few days before the European elections and about a year and a half before the highly awaited US presidential elections: "We have the internet, we have a solid democracy that has guaranteed 70 years of rule. Fascism will not return, it would be absurd, but there is a transformation of representative democracies because representation is no longer handled by the parties, but directly by the leaders ".

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RFK and the “Mysterious” End of Kennedy’s Populism

Fifty years ago, on an important night for the Democratic primaries, candidate Robert F. Kennedy, brother of the former President, JFK, died in Los Angeles. RFK understood right away that, more than Communism, it was the Mafia and its relationship with the establishment that was the enemy within that had to be examined. And if he and his brother had not been killed, perhaps today we would give new meaning to the word “populism”

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The State of Denial: Trump, the Gop, and the Quiet Slide from Democracy

What, exactly, Donald Trump will be able to get away with in other areas is yet to be seen, and much will depend on the further adventures of the Mueller investigation.  Will Trump survive his (or his team’s) alleged collaboration with Moscow? Will he get away with many apparent attempts to obstruct justice, such as demanding personal loyalty from an FBI Director, and then firing him?  Did his demand that Hillary Clinton be jailed actually hurt her more than him?  Did he get away with his shocking failure to condemn white supremacists, largely by changing the subject?  It appears now that, except in circles already militantly hostile to him, Trump has paid no price for calling a cruel and hostile dictator to congratulate him on winning a phony election.  He largely gets away with it. If we are to depend, as a safeguard against any move in the direction of fascism, on the thoughts and behavior of our citizens, the future of those safeguards begins to look bleak.

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