A call for understanding a new phenomenon
Populism is not yet properly understood and definitions of it are still
highly controversial, especially since it is a label that is applied to
a wide range of political movements that have very little in common. It
is also highly controversial whether populism should be classified as an
ideology, a political style, or a socio-political
mentality (For a review of the state of the art on the different definitions of the populist phenomenon, see: \citealt{urbinati2014,Tarchi_2016}). It is a complex and
variegated galaxy, better identifiable for the problems it mentions than
for the solutions it proposes. We will need to distinguish between
various forms based on their left/right/anti-systemic ideologies, their
effects on consolidated democracies/young democracies/countries in the
transition to democracy, and their national characteristics, especially
the Europe/United States divide