Personalistic leadership, party politics, and the quality of democracy: the case of Italy

Abstract

Italian political history has not been marked by the presence of major political leaders. Only exceptionally have leadership figures, such as the Risorgimento hero Giuseppe Garibaldi, played a significant and widely acclaimed role. Others, especially Benito Mussolini, were associated with the authoritarian regime of the interwar period, therefore contributing to the general distrust of powerful leaders. This paper explores what have been, and are, the cultural and institutional obstacles to the emergence of powerful leaders. The most important can be found in the presence of widely shared anti-political sentiments. In the post–Second World War period, the prevailing attitude of dislike of strong leaders was expressed by both major parties, the Christian Democrats and the Communists. This dislike was institutionalised in the Italian Constitution, which provides for a traditional model of weak parliamentary government. In spite of Silvio Berlusconi’s emphasis on his personal leadership qualities, or perhaps precisely because of his extreme personalisation, mistrust of possibly dominant political leaders remains widespread. Its consequences do not seem to be positive for the quality of Italian democracy.