Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony

Little, hungry men

Silvio Berlusconi's extraordinary resilience and capacity to realize his ambitions is one of the reasons why Paul Ginsborg, the leading British historian of contemporary Italy, believes that developments in Italy over the last few years deserve to be taken more seriously than they have been. In this characteristically penetrating and disquieting book, he argues that Berlusconi's genial and often comic persona -- to many outsiders almost a caricature of the quintessential Italian politician -- belies a serious political project with major implications for democracy both in Italy and in Europe as a whole. "History", he says, "... has taught us to be wary of little men with big appetites". If Berlusconi were to win the next national elections, scheduled for the spring of 2006, he would seek to become President of Italy with newly enhanced powers, and "there will be no doubt that he will establish a fully fledged politico-media regime in the heart of Europe".

Central to Berlusconi's success, Ginsborg argues, has been his ability to use his control of vast swaths of the Italian media, commercial television in particular, to propagate the values of consumerism and familism that appear to underlie much of his charismatic appeal to broad sections of the Italian public. Though he has repeatedly asserted his belief in pluralism, pointing out for instance, that he is criticized, and even satirized, on his own television channels, he has not hesitated to debar dissenting voices from appearing on the RAI state television network.

One of the more alarming features of Berlusconi's government has been its espousal of an essentially "patrimonial" vision of the State. This is far from new in Italy. As Ginsborg stresses, clientelistic practices are deeply embedded in Italian political culture, and for decades the Christian Democrats took advantage of their dominant position to colonize large sections of the State. But Berlusconi's power both within his party and over the government is exceptional, and this has enabled him to blur the distinction between public and private almost at will. Hence, for example, his assaults on the judiciary, and the passing last year of a law giving legal immunity to those occupying the five highest offices of State.

Much of the responsibility for Berlusconi's success lies, in Ginsborg's eyes, with the Centre Left, which did almost nothing when in power from 1996 to 2001 to tackle issues such as conflicts of interests or to ensure adequate regulation of the media. Berlusconi's dismal record in government, especially on the economy, and his increasingly strained relations with his coalition partners in the war against Iraq may yet bring him down. But he is nothing if not a survivor, and Paul Ginsborg's masterly study highlights the danger of underestimating him.

Christopher Duggan's Francesco Crispi: From nation to nationalism was published in 2002, and A Concise History of Italy appeared in 1994. He is Professor of Modern Italian History at Reading.

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