Populism, Science and the Italian Democracy

Abstract

Anti-elitist ideologies, generally accepted as an important element of “populism”, become particularly problematic in the field of scientific and health-related issues, where scepticism and suspicion risk compromising the relationship between political institutions and the scientific community, and may actually threaten fundamental rights. This chapter presents some paradigmatic examples of how, when expert and popular knowledge come into conflict, the political discourse is often contaminated, creating impasses and making good policy outcomes significantly less likely. The decades-long Italian debate around compulsory vaccinations and the contentious “Stamina” case (which involved a non-validated therapy) exemplify the challenges posed by populist trends to the effective informing of government policy by objective scientific expertise and advice, and the consequences of this dynamic for democratic society.