Saving Democracy from Politicians. Do We Need Professional Representatives?

Contributor(s): Professor Valentino Larcinese | Is populism a threat to democracy? And aren’t technocracy and elitism also threats to democracy? Is there a trade-off between the competence and representativeness of politicians? The lecture tries to address these questions of paramount importance for contemporary democratic systems by using the experience of the 5 Star Movement in the Italian parliament as a case study. It shows that the 5 Star parliamentary group is socio-economically much more similar to the Italian population than other political parties. It also shows that inclusiveness is not associated with below-average legislative performance.