Phnom Pehn, Cambodia
November 24, 2011
Italy’s Last Democratic Despot
by Edoardo Campanella
Italy has always had a weakness for authoritarian figures. Emperors, kings, princes, or despots have held power one after another since the time of the Roman Empire. The last dominant personality, Silvio Berlusconi, deserted by his supporters under the pressure of global financial markets, is out as prime minister. Political fragmentation, age constraints, and emotional exhaustion have induced him to promise that he will not seek office again.
Berlusconi’s fall marks the end of one of Western democracy’s most controversial recent 
chapters. History will judge Berlusconi’s actions, but Italians remain divided. All agree that he was never primus inter pares. To his devotees, he was like an enlightened monarch, a man who gave up his successful private businesses to help Italy rebuild from the ashes of Italy’s post-war party system, which had collapsed in a vast corruption scandal that had left almost no part of government unsullied.
To his opponents, Berlusconi was akin to a despot, albeit democratically elected, who abused his office by pursuing his commercial interests and protecting himself from legal sanction.
Whatever one’s view, the story of Berlusconi’s rise and fall was written long ago, during the Renaissance, in Niccolò Machiavelli’s classic work The Prince. Berlusconi carefully followed all of Machiavelli’s teachings on how to obtain and maintain power – all but one, and that lapse sealed his fate.
According to Machiavelli, a leading citizen is chosen as prince by the favor of his fellow citizens if his authority is perceived as arising from his ability to defend them from the elite (at that time, the nobility). When Berlusconi started his political adventure in 1994, Italians wanted protection from a ruling class that had been revealed to be utterly corrupt. He presented himself as a self-made billionaire, willing to enter politics for the good of the country. His huge wealth was the collateral for his honesty.
But Berlusconi also guaranteed the survival of a political class that had lost its credibility. Many leaders of Italy’s political center were charged with corruption; the left lost its appeal after the collapse of the Soviet Union; and the right never regained trust due to the fascist legacy. Berlusconi appeared to be a savior, because he seemed to stand somewhere beyond these tendencies and their tainted legacies. Politicians needed only to be with or against him, regardless of ideology. His party was based on such a strong cult of personality that even when he was leading the opposition (as he did for half of his 17-year political career), Italian politics remained focused on him.
When he was in power, Berlusconi was a master at maintaining it. According to Machiavelli, a prince is praised for the illusion of keeping his word. Owning the main Italian TV channels and much of the popular press simplified this for Berlusconi, and he sometimes resorted to censorship of the state-owned television channels as well. His media reported half-truths, depicting a country with a sound economy and a good reputation abroad. In fact, languishing economic growth, legal scandals, and the absence of long-term goals were leading Italy toward a precipitous decline.
Machiavelli argues that a prince ought to be well armed to take action against external powers. In Berlusconi’s case, these powers were actually internal but out of his control. His archenemy was the justice system. He faced 16 trials for various offenses alleged to have been committed prior to his political career. The army at his disposal was the strongest a democracy has: the law. He passed several measures to safeguard himself and his entourage against prosecution, arguing all the while that communists were conspiring to bring him down.
Finally came the fall. Machiavelli argues that the prince’s actions should not be constrained by moral considerations – that he pursue his political goals by any means. This is precisely what an ever more weakened Berlusconi tried to do.
In order to secure power in the most turbulent months of his political career, Berlusconi obtained the support of many MPs through patronage, publicly attacked his prosecutors, and tried to water down the emergency budget adopted in July in order to benefit his own companies. Here is where he deviated from Machiavelli’s path.
For Machiavelli, a prince’s ultimate goal should always appear to be the common good, not his self-interest. Berlusconi misunderstood this lesson. He confused the public with the private, and regularly forced the parliament to attend to his personal, business, and legal affairs. At the end of his political adventure, he lost touch with reality, unable to recognize that a depressed economy was causing popular discontent to fester and grow.
Eventually, Berlusconi lost the support even of his loyalists, as his government lost the illusion that it was serving a public mandate. So now an interim government, led by the technocrat Mario Monti, has been given the task not only of restoring the health of Italy’s public finances, but also of revitalizing the legitimacy of its democratic institutions.
If the cyclical view of history that holds sway in Italy is correct, Italians are once more waiting to be ruled by a new dominant personality. But today’s political landscape is so fragmented that no charismatic individual will be able to rise to power anytime soon. Italy’s time of princes, enlightened monarchs, or democratic despots is over – at least for the time being.
Edoardo Campanella is an economic adviser to the Italian Senate, and was formerly an economist at the World Trade Organization.
Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2011.
http://www.project-syndicate.org
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
A prince this man is not. Good riddance I say. He was an embarrasment to Italy. Even when one is rich it doesnt guarantee safety from corrupt practices. Power gets to the head then.
“A prince this man is not.”
Nope, he’s the Pope of the Bordello. Machiavellian-ism cannot keep pace in today’s networked environment. It’s a discredited type of cynicism. Even Burma’s junta recognizes this. Good for them, ‘cuz Kim Jong-Il is also very ill.
Which brings me to the point that Authoritarianism and Medieval political statecraft is going extinct, so long as there is a networked computer existing. The powers-that-be seldom understand that Technology has far out-paced Sun Tzu like tactics. Our esteemed imbecilic Politicians are still hoping for Blue Ocean revivals, while global warming has turned it Green. Propaganda requires a make-over.
Power corrupts and democratic despots like Mugabe and other tinpot dictators and our Italian friend Silvio are absolutely corrupt. Why is that? Because we the people are suckers when it comes to charismatic leaders. We will never learn because each generation never learns from the previous one. Machiavellian precepts still hold sway, even in a networked world.
“If the cyclical view of history that holds sway in Italy is correct, Italians are once more waiting to be ruled by a new dominant personality. But today’s political landscape is so fragmented that no charismatic individual will be able to rise to power any time soon. Italy’s time of princes, enlightened monarchs, or democratic despots is over – at least for the time being” (Campanella).
So what is true of Italians can be true for Malaysians. Care to comment , CLF.–Din Merican
Charisma, like all other human attributes is fleeting. It’s like “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.”
Marshall McLuhan calls it the “Media is the Message.” It’s subjective, never objective. The potential in this day and age depends on the media for ‘charisma’.
Malaysians, Italians, Burmese, Zimbabweans and Greeks, like people all over the world, are easily swayed by glitz and glamour, if only for a while. Napoleon, Mussolini and Hitler will not last long, in this age of instant communication, if their detractors had access to alternative forms of media. Humanity is reaching another stage of evolution, where technique and propaganda even on a massive scale, will be shown for what it is. The only options are heavy handed clamp down of dissent, like in the Hermit Kingdom or when there is deliberate paucity of electronic information like in the African nations and until recently in Burma.
It is not about what one says with beautiful prose that melts hearts – it is ultimately in the doing, persistent willingness to be open to new ideas, personal integrity, contriteness – if wrong, honesty, faith of convictions and perseverance in face of adversity. There is presently too much emphasis on “Form” and obsessive Technique – with little left over for the soul.
The ‘Cult of Personality’ is much harder to perpetuate nowadays. Over here, both the PM and the Opposition leader are doing their best – both have perpetual hard-ons, but only one of them knows what he’s talking about. The other flur has an Image problem, which will persist even if perpetually Re-Branded.
what frightens is the fact that a known criminal and ganster can remain in power for so long in a developed country. (parallel to M’sia?).
why can’t Italy prosper inspite of all the aid that It receives from the EU?
politicians have refined the ways to keep people apart thus making them more susceptible for abuse, like scapegoats.
It’s his audience which is the message, reeper.
They wanted style. They got shit instead. But Italians think differently.
Reminds me of a Fiat i used to drive – looks good on the outside, crap to maintain.
You have to compare a Volkswagen vs Fiat vs Proton, to see what i mean.
It is said that a man will fall because of the three “ta”: tahkta, harta and wanita. It seems that Berlusconi has all three and Italians are suckers for macho men.
Only productivity and prudence will repair the Italian economy. This applies to every other country as well. And a strong leadership will surely helps.
yes, very fitting, Belusconi was good lo look at but crap for the people to maintain him, though.
the Italians I know here are hardworking people and they prosper here, even the restaurant workers. could the corruption and cronyism which is seen as cavalier delict prevalent in southern european countries a reason? or is it the dependency on handouts.
lets hope Italy does’nt go bankrupt in style. it won’t be the last, others are lining up.
or the italians can’t vote in proper leaders like the malaysians?
FIAT = Für Italiener Akzeptable Technik!
my first car was a Fiat multipla, my neighbour had a Topolino a cute baby. it did’nt need a battery actually, you sit inside and push start with one leg!
CLF, pretty things are difficult to maintain and are costly don’t you think?
our honourable Dato must also know that for a fact!
CLF, Bean, Tok Cik, semper, Gobala, didi, Kathy and all the rest – its fun reading your comments, I#m going AWOL for the next four weeks. to see personally how Malaysia is doing. if tmnet lets me log in then I’ll follow your comments.
dinobeano – is Beano the main reading material for Dato? mine were beano, dandy, topper and beezer – those were the times
reeperbahn there’s numerous internet cafe and for RM 4 you can surf all you want. keep up with the gang. will be in Malaysia next week too.