Silvio Berlusconi, Forza Italia, and Berlusconism: a political and cultural enterprise

Abstract

ABSTRACT Silvio Berlusconi instigated a significant and lasting transformation in Italian politics. He revolutionized political communication, established a personal party, personalized the political process, and influenced the alteration of the party system. His approach was marked by a mix of diverse and sometimes contradictory elements. For example, this new political figure, who claimed to be the most important statesman in Italian history, strived to maintain his image as an outsider and non-politician. He framed himself, his party and his coalition as expressions of the centre-right, yet he was undeniably a new kind of populist, leveraging his vast media empire for the purposes of political mobilization. Berlusconi also succeeded in creating ‘Berlusconism’, a unique political culture that I will discuss, along with an anthropological transformation of politics and society. Thus, even after Berlusconi’s death, the legacy of Berlusconism endures in Italy. Moreover, in the mainstream literature, Berlusconi has often been seen as evidence of the ‘abnormality’ of Italian democracy. Contrary to this view, I argue that despite Italy’s distinct national characteristics, Berlusconi exemplified the first instance of a profound metamorphosis affecting many European democracies, which are no longer strictly classical liberal and representative models.