International audienceThis article engages in a comparative analysis of populist parties across the West-European left-right spectrum. Conceptualizing populism as a ‘thin ideology’, we argue that populist parties show both similarities and differences, and that these are a product of the interaction of the core features of populism with the ‘thicker’ ideological traditions from which the different parties draw upon. We employ a qualitative method in analyzing the core ideational features of populism in four different populist parties, both left and right. We find that all four parties converge in particular on their conception of the elite as a separate ‘caste’, in relation to economic and European integration conflicts, operating on patriotism and in claiming that they represent the true interests of the sovereign people. They differ, however, in their conception of the ‘true’ people that they presumably represent and the nature of popular sovereignty and populist democracy

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The article focuses on the strategic evolution of the Italian Five Star Movement (Movimento 5 Stelle-

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En Italie, le « peuple » de la Lega Nord (Ligue du Nord) s’est adossé originellement au façonnage d’une identité « padane » sans réel substrat culturel ou géographique. Au fil du temps, de nouvelles frontières sociales et symboliques ont été dessinées, complétées plus récemment par un repositionnement au cœur de l’espace des droites radicales populistes en Europe. Cette complexité tient en partie à la nature opportuniste et caméléonienne du régional-populisme « léguiste », et au statut hybride du mouvement, entre force de coalition gouvernementale et parti d’opposition. Elle illustre en outre la variabilité des structures d’opportunités politiques qui existent au nord et au sud de l’Italie.

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