Sobre los conceptos de representación política, participación política y populismo: una lectura

The significant importance assumed by reflections on the concepts of political representation, political participation and populism is explained in relation to the fact that we undoubtedly face the inherent nodal point to the idea of representative government and of the relationship between rulers and ruled. Among the peculiarities of democratic political practice, in fact, traditionally it highlights the strong correlation recorded between the different processes of representation and participation, correlation clearly needs to be evaluated in the light of the relevant political transformations that characterize contemporary democracies. Obviously, participation strengthens the democratization of political life and it favors reducing fragmentation, but more recent debates that occupy the vast field of political science research emphasize the presence of the controversial issue that opposes the relevance, for an increase of democratic legitimacy, for the combination between the typicality of representative democracy and deliberative democracy characteristics, versus the observation in current political systems populist of interesting populists tendencies. Through therefore a review of the theoretical bases, these issues will be investigated from the problematization of these that characterized the European thought and doctrine, useful for evaluating contemporary political praxis.