Since 1994, when he first moved from business into public life, Silvio Berlusconi has been a defining figure in Italian politics. From the outset, his political career was expected to be short-lived, and over the following years he has been considered finished several times, most recently with his resignation in 2011 - yet each time, such predictions have been proven wrong.
In this fascinating political and historical study, Giovanni Orsina shows that Berlusconi's success and resilience have lain in his ability to give significant political answers to longstanding questions in Italian history. In the process, he also shows how the weakened political parties, electoral volatility, resurgent populism, negative politics, and other post-democratic features of Berlusconi's Italy came to be.
Review: By placing 'Berlusconism' into a fully historical context, Giovanni Orsina cuts through the stereotypes. He has exposed the Berlusconi phenomenon's roots and has given us a fresh understanding of an important trend that Italian and international observers have frequently treated in a superficial manner.
Orsina's insightful and impeccably documented book leads us to conclude that--far from being an inexplicable development led by a quixotic businessman operating in a unbalanced country--there are rational explanations for Berlusconi's rise that other countries ignore at their own risk. - Spencer M. Di Scala, University of Massachusetts Boston, USA How Silvio Berlusconi came to corral an electoral power-base and dominate his country's politics for so long is a fascinating story.
And in this book Giovanni Orsina explains how he did it. By setting the Berlusconi phenomenon in the broad sweep of the modern Italian political history the book manages to de-mystify the subject. A certain logic emerges. Foreigners in particular often struggle to understand the rise of Silvio Berlusconi, but Professor Orsina has provided them here with a comprehensive explanation. - Alan Johnston, correspondent with BBC Rome Giovanni Orsina has written the first serious book on 'Berlusconism' as a political movement whose nature and success can be explained by delving in the long story of our country. . . .
A book that, for the quality of its writing, the obvious seriousness and rootedness of many of its arguments ... should find many readers. - Michele Salvati, Il Corriere della Sera
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