Silvio Berlusconi : television, power and patrimony by Ginsborg Paul

Author:Ginsborg, Paul
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography: general, European history: postwar, from c 1945 -, Political leaders & leadership, Television and politics, 21st century, c 1990 to c 2000, General, Contemporary Politics - Europe, Mass Communication Media And Society, Politics and government, Political Science, Biography / Autobiography, Mass media, Politics/International Relations, Italy, Historical - General, Business, Presidents & Heads of State, Berlusconi, Silvio, , Political aspects, 1936-, Berlusconi, Silvio, 1936-
Publisher: London ; New York, N.Y. : Verso
Published: 2004-10-25T16:00:00+00:00

ising, watchful of the need to balance the books. These were important virtues in an Italian public sphere not noted for such qualities. But they were not enough. No corpus of left-wing thought emerged to complement and balance the intellectual weight of the liberal 'technicians' and intellectuals The centre-left governed from above, with reforms, norms and regulations being announced to an essentially passive citizenship. There was no attempt to build support and involvement from below, to create a climate of enthusiasm which could have sustained some of the government's worthier initiatives. In more than one sphere, as with educational reform and the teachers, exactly the opposite happened.

After Romano Prodi had led Italy into European monetary union on 1 January 1999, the centre-left lost its way. Giuliano Amato, who was to be the last of the three prime ministers of this period — Prodi had been the first and D'Alema the second — commented in March of 2001: 'If we've suffered from a defect in these years, it has been our inability to link satisfactorily the single chapters of our reform programme to a general design capable of involving the public, and of giving the perception of leading the country towards a better society of the future'. 15 The old Italian Communist and Socialist strategy of structural reform, the laying down of stepping stones to a Socialist society, had long since been abandoned, but nothing very distinctive had taken its place. By 2001 the centre-left said that it had governed well, and in some areas it had, but in the country there was scarse enthusiasm for, or even knowledge of, what it had done. The longstanding tradition which identified left-wing politics with the politics of participation and grass-roots democracy, of learning citizenship through practice, had been left woefully in abeyance.

15 Massimo Giannini, 'Le Cassandre sono servite' (interview with Giuliano Amato), la Repubblica, 2 March 2001.

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