"What accounts for the success of Silvio Berlusconi in Italian politics since the political crisis of the early 1990's?"

Résumé du document

As the most dominant Italian politician of his time, Silvio Berlusconi has introduced important innovations in many fields of Italian politics: new ideological approaches, new coalition strategies, new campaign methods and a new leadership style and language. All of these innovations have had a considerable impact both on his party and the wider political system, and the governmental program, as well as on the nature of Italian democracy (Paolucci C. 2006, 163). These new ideas and methods began emerging in Italy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but they only displayed themselves fully with Forza Italia ("Power Italy"), founded in 1993, and the strongest organisation in the political alliance which Berlusconi has established. The purpose of the following pages is to account for the success of Silvio Berlusconi in Italian politics since the political crisis of the early 1990s. Several factors have created this success. First to be successful a new party has to persuade the electorate that they are beset by serious social patterns, to which it alone has the answer, and Berlusconi has done this by underlining the crisis of the First Republic. Second, the party has to make its policy proposals attractive by including some appealing campaign themes such as tax reductions for everyone. Third, it must build up and assert its own identity.

Extraits

[...] The purpose of the following pages is to account for the success of Silvio Berlusconi in Italian politics since the political crisis of the early 1990s. Several factors have created this success. First to be successful a new party has to persuade the electorate that they are beset by serious social patterns, to which it alone has the answer, and Berlusconi has done this by underlining the crisis of the First Republic. Second, the party has to make its policy proposals attractive by including some appealing campaign themes such as tax reductions for everyone. [...]

[...] (1997), Contemporary Italy, London: Longman. - Tarchi, M (1998), "The Lega Nord" in Regionalist Parties in Western Europe, De Winter, Lieven and Türsan, Huri London: Routledge. It is the nickname of Silvio Berlusconi. It is is an Italian center-right party alliance led by national media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi. It is is a political denomination strongly related to Third Way policies in Italy and commonly adopted by center-to-left alliances of parties from 1996; its name was introduced by Romano Prodi. [...]

[...] It was full of reassurances, of promises to appeal to all social classes, and of declarations that there would be no continuity between Forza Italia and the governing parties of the past (Newell J 100; McCarthy P 87- 90). Appealing campaign themes During campaigns, Silvio Berlusconi usually draws his election slogans from the latest opinion polls and generally promises everything to everyone (Sassoon D.1997, 12-23; Raniolo F 2006, 440-9). Some of his campaign themes are always superficially appealing. For example, he reinforces the image of Forza Italia as a tax reducing party with the simple slogan. “Less taxes for everyone”, and ever promises to end all income tax. How he plans to finance such measures remains a mystery. [...]

[...] According to Sylos Labini, Berlusconi is not a genuine right-wing politician at all, but merely a power-hungry capitalist pursuing his own business interests. Patrimonial organisation with a special leader with a special mission The crucial characteristic of Forza Italia was its configuration as a patrimonial organisation, owned, controlled and directed autocratically by its founder and leader: Silvio Berlusconi. This characteristic of the party was closely connected to the second and third important features of the generic model: the “business firm character, with the transfer of people, but also structures, ideology, styles and procedures from Berlusconi's firms into the party, and charismatic leadership, which played and important legitimising function, by justifying patrimonialism internally and the business form model externally, thereby guaranteeing the loyalty of the activists and the support of the voters” (Paolucci C 2006, 166; Desideri C. [...]

[...] Berlusconi controls Italy's three largest private television stations and several influential daily papers which he unashamedly uses to further his own political purposes, and as a result, the opportunity of free and objective political debate has been much reduced in Italy, especially since, as the head of government, he also has had control of the state television channel (Ginsborg P 37-53). Data processed by the Osservatorio di Pavio confirm the disproportionate access to the media which have marked Forza Italia's campaigns. In the years 1997-99, although he was in opposition, Berlusconi was the politician who was most seen on Italian television. [...]