Italy: What are the long-term impacts of electing a populist leader?

Disrupting Peace

To close out Season 2, we’re talking about the long-term impacts of electing a right-wing populist to office. Silvio Berlusconi transformed Italian government and society, beginning when he was first elected Prime Minister in 1994. In this episode, we’ll explore how Berlusconi legitimized the far-right (even though he himself was a center right politician), why people repeatedly vote for leaders that don’t make their lives better, and how Italian activists have still achieved some progressive victories.

Fabi Fugazza is the Co-Executive Director and Legal Expert at the Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights. She is (also) a lawyer with extensive experience in human rights law. Follow her on Instagram @fabi.fugazza.

Luisa Chiodi holds a PhD in Social and Political Science, and has been the director of think tank and online newspaper OBC Transeuropa since 2006. Follow her on Instagram @luisachiodi.

Disrupting Peace is a production of The World Peace Foundation. The show is produced by Bridget Conley and Emily Shaw. Engineering by Jacob Winik and Aja Simpson. Marketing and Social media by Emily Ruhm. Show artwork by Simon Fung.

Special thanks to Jeremy Helton, my colleagues, Lisa Avery, B. Arneson, and Alex de Waal, and the team from the Tufts Digital Design Studio, including Kimberly Lynn Forero-Arnias, and Miles Donovan.

Find out more about the World Peace Foundation at worldpeacefoundation.org. Follow us on Bluesky at worldpeacefdtn.bsky.social, and on Instagram at @worldpeacefdtn.