Sovranism in Government

Populism, nationalism and sovereigntism are often treated as synonyms, or at least as variants of one another, even though, from a rhetorical point of view, they rely on different conceptions of ‘the people’. The concept of sovereigntism overlaps with those of nationalism and populism, but it more clearly originates from the new cleavage created by political globalization, namely, the divide between governing national institutions and ruling supranational organizations, or in other words, between state and supra-state institutions. Sovereigntism emerged, in fact, as a reaction to globalization and to those governance processes that have placed public decisions beyond the reach of national citizens and institutions. This short chapter aims at theoretically framing the studies of two right-wing parties: the Lega and the Law and Justice party.