Populism and Constitutional Democracy in Times of Crisis

The paper discusses preliminarily, the different meanings of the notion of ‘populism’, proposing an interpretation of it as a strategy of rupture instead of political continuity, neutral with respect to the contents with which it can actually be filled and therefore evanescent. Then, the reasons why populism is often a successful strategy are analysed as a question that is brought to the attention of scholars and commentators. Trying to answer such a question, the paper links the idea of populism in politics and hence in law to the idea of crisis, arguing that of all potential political strategies the populist one is most successful in times of crisis, i.e. when previous social ideas and values deteriorate in consequence of profound changes in the economic structure. Are we living one of such times? How and in which directions could these tendencies affect contemporary constitutionalism? These issues are also addressed in the light of the best-known example of constitutional crisis of contemporary age: the crisis of Weimar.