ABSTRACT
Forza Italia (FI, Go Italy!) is a young party, only 11 years old. It is also a totally new party. Berlusconi himself (2001, pp. 76-77) defined it as 'a completely new type of free organization of men and women electors'. The manner and the timing of its entry into the political arena were also new and for this reason FI has been called an 'instant' or 'plastic' party. New, too, were its particular organizational and strategic characteristics and its political culture. In addition, it is a new party because it represents a nonpolitical answer or, perhaps better, an anti-political answer to the crisis and subsequent collapse of the Italian political system and an entire political class (1992-94). Thus it is an 'anti-party party' and, as such, a 'subversive party'. There are elements of truth in these labels. FI is all these things together but also more.
