Lobbyism vs. Populism: A Brief Comparison U.S.A.-Italy

Starting from the assumption that lobbyism and populism are phenomena both related to the socio-political pluralism, typical of the modern legal orders, the paper intends to analyze them in the experience of U.S.A. and Italy. Particularly, they’ll be summarized the regulatory systems of lobbying activity, as well as the characteristics of populism, tried out in both Countries. Such comparison, to highlight that—in despite of the common matrix—the aforementioned phenomena produce very much different effects into the liberal-democratic system, especially regarding the role of the Parliament, of the political parties, of the electoral debate and, also, the selection of interests, the elaboration of public policies and their transition inside the decision-making process: while lobbyism might be considered a part of a mature democratic system, instead populism contradicts some of the cornerstones of both the social and liberal democratic tradition.