October 17, 2011
SNAPSHOT
The Veiled Tyranny of
Italy's Silvio Berlusconi
How the Prime Minister
Clings to Power
Maurizio Viroli
MAURIZIO VIROLI is Professor of Political Science at Princeton University.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio
Berlusconi's system of power [1] has no precedent and no equal in
the history of liberal and democratic countries. The most
unsavory aspects of his regime are well known [2]. He is continually
embroiled in political corruption scandals: His longtime political partner Cesare
Previti [3] has been found guilty of bribery and sentenced to six
years in prison. There are allegations of his connections to organized crime:
His other partner in business and politics, Marcello Dell'Utri [4], has been sentenced to eight
years in prison for his ties to the Sicilian Mafia. Berlusconi displays an open
contempt for the judiciary and the constitutional court, as he regards both as
unacceptable limitations on his power. Accordingly, his cabinets have passed
laws to shield him from the judiciary. The numerous sex scandals during his
rule have prompted commentators to call Italy a "bordello state" that
is run by a "whoreocracy."
On Friday, Berlusconi
again demonstrated his political staying power as he survived a no-confidence
vote by Italy's parliament. The news serves as a reminder that Berlusconi's
new, ambiguous, protean type of political power was born not against but within
democratic institutions. Some scholars have suggested an analogy with fascism.
Others have called it despotism, a kind of sultanate. Neither interpretation
suffices. Fascism seized
power in Italy through the systematic use of violence, including the
assassination of political opponents, and kept it through the
demolition of civil liberties. Berlusconi has used various forms of
pressures against his opponents, but he has never commissioned assassinations.
Nor has he jailed anyone on political grounds. Political liberty and civil
rights are still in place. Newspapers and televisions (those not owned or
controlled by Berlusconi) can print or broadcast harsh criticism against the
government, citizens can freely organize rallies, and the opposition can raise
its voice in the parliament. The concept of despotism, too, fails to capture the core of Berlusconi's
regime -- the term "sultanate" evokes an exotic and distant regime
sustained by tradition. Berlusconi would surely like to be considered a sultan
(and many of his supporters regard him as such), but he is as indigenous as one
can be and lacks the aura of tradition. Also, he has explicit support from
religious institutions, as the Vatican has, on many occasions, overlooked his
questionable moral behavior and offered him help.
Berlusconi's regime
exemplifies, instead, a degeneration
of democracy into the power of a demagogue who controls a corrupt
electorate. Like classic demagogues, Berlusconi has displayed, since the
beginning of his political career, a remarkable ability to fascinate the masses
with political theater that exalts his image. At the same time, he has an
impressive ability to win over the Italian public by telling them exactly what
they want to hear. His speeches are skillfully crafted to exploit the
electorate's beliefs and offer a comforting and simplified vision of
reality.
Unlike almost all
demagogues, however, Berlusconi is immensely rich, and he uses his fortune to
obtain and consolidate political power. With his money he buys people, and more
often he uses his money to distribute favors of various sorts and value, from
presents to jobs. In turn, he gets, as has always been the case with this kind
of politics, the loyalty of a large number of supporters. One could say that Berlusconi has established an oligarchy
within a democratic system.
Berlusconi's regime
possesses traits that classical political philosophers described as characteristic
of tyranny. But rather
than tyranny in the sense of a power imposed and maintained through
violence, Berlusconi's regime is more of a veiled tyranny, a
concept that was first forged by the fourteenth-century jurist Bartolo da
Sassoferrato. Veiled tyranny is a political regime that has not established
itself illegally, nor does it resort to the use of massive coercion to remain
in power. It can effectively attain its goals under the shadow of republican or
democratic institutions. The best historical example was the Medici regime in
fifteenth-century Florence. Like any other type, veiled tyranny is the use of power by one man to serve his
interest, against that of the
common good.
Italy has a long
history of veiled tyrannies. Free city republics of the late Middle Ages did
not succeed in defending themselves from internal corruption or foreign
domination, and all became open or veiled tyrannies. The liberal regime
established by the Risorgimento in 1861 was dismantled 50 years later by
fascism. The democratic republic born on June 2, 1946, on the ashes of fascism,
has degenerated into Berlusconi's system. A country of fragile liberty, this is
Italy's distinctive feature.
A man with enormous
power such as Berlusconi creates beneath him a court composed of a large number
of individuals who depend on him to obtain favors, power, and fame. With the
court, come the habits of servility:
flattery, simulation, obsession with appearances, and complete identification
with the feelings, thoughts, and will of the signore, not to mention the
presence of women ready to offer their services to magnify his splendor. Unlike
early-modern and modern princely and imperial courts that affected hundreds or
thousands of individuals, Berlusconi's court system influences practically the
whole country, largely through the power of media. A servile mentality and corruption
reach even the remotest areas of Italian social life. While authoritarian
regimes control bodies, the new court system governs the minds. Incredible as
it might appear, the regime has been able to produce an anthropological
transformation of Italian society on a large scale.
Why do Italians so
easily succumb? Because the country suffers from a moral malaise that has been
present for centuries. With the exception of a few elites that have dignified
the country's history, Italy lacks a sense of moral liberty, as Carlo Rosselli,
back in 1929, powerfully wrote in Liberal Socialism: "It is a sad thing
but true, that the education of man in Italy, the formation of the basic moral
cell -- i.e., the individual -- is in large part still to be done. Most people
lack the jealous and profound sense of autonomy and responsibility, because of
misery, indifference, secular renunciation." Berlusconi is surely unfit to
govern a democratic republic, but Italians
are unfit for liberty.
In the specific case
of Berlusconi's ascent, however, there is also a visible and serious
responsibility of the political and intellectual elite. Political judgments
must be based on deeds, and the fact is that these elites have failed to
prevent the formation of Berlusconi's enormous power and have not yet been able
to defeat it. A significant part of the current political elite that opposes
Berlusconi, with various degrees of consistency and determination, has failed.
A new one must come forth if Italians want to entertain some hope for a civic
rebirth.
One way out of this
servitude would be a sustained effort of civic education
designed to form a new and different political leadership guided by
constitutional principles. Berlusconi's ultimate goal is to dismantle the
republican constitution in order to institutionalize his control. He wants to
reduce the power of all existing institutions -- the presidency of the
republic, the constitutional court, the independence of the judiciary -- that
somehow still limit his domination. The emancipation from the liberty of the
servants must, on the contrary, take the constitution as its guiding principle.
International public
opinion might think that Berlusconi is just an Italian extravagance. Improbable
as it might appear, however, Berlusconi's methods and language could find
imitators in other countries. No democratic society is immune to
the combined power of media and money.
The media persuade and seduce the electorate. Money buys consent and loyalty.
In political matters, caution is preferable to excessive self-confidence.
Citizens of democratic countries should therefore learn from Italy's mistakes
and prepare ahead of time the appropriate defenses against the rise of enormous
power.
Adapted from The Liberty of Servants by Maurizio
Viroli, translated by Antony Shugaar. English translation copyright © 2012 by
Princeton University Press. Reprinted by permission. (Original edition
published under the title La libertà dei servi. Copyright © 2010 by
Guis, Laterza & Figli. All rights reserved.)
Copyright © 2002-2012
by the Council on Foreign Relations, Inc.
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Home > Snapshot > The
Veiled Tyranny of Italy's Silvio Berlusconi
Links:
[1]
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/51501/stanley-hoffmann/the-crisis-of-the-italian-state-from-the-origins-of-the-cold-war
[2]
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/60192/stanley-hoffmann/silvio-berlusconi-television-power-and-patrimony
[3] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2988561.stm
[4] http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/dec/12/italy.sophiearie
