ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on Lega Nord's style of mobilisation and organisation. It examines how the party reproduced the new territorial identity of the North, studying mobilisation structures and their effectiveness. Lega is commonly depicted as a populist and charismatic party. Charismatic parties are defined by the presence of a single leader. The party is, in fact, 'the creature and vehicle for the assertion of a charismatic leadership' (Panebianco, 1982: p. 108). Analysts of Lega Nord rightly emphasise Bossi's leadership as a key feature in the party organisation (Biorcio, 1991, 1997; Diamanti, 1993). Bossi is the driving force behind Lega Nord and has fashioned the party as his own political creature. Lega Nord's leader has built his carrier in the creation and reproduction of political controversy and polemic. Described by followers and opponents as a 'political animal', Bossi introduced a popular language in Italian politics and insulted the main societal, institutional and political actors in Italy (Biorcio, 1991; 1997). In fact, one could ask if there is any institution, societal or political actor in Italy who has not been the target of Bossi's attacks, from the Southerners, to his own political allies, to the Pope. 1
The success of Lega Nord in the Italian party system was explained on many accounts as the result of a cycle of protest in Italian politics and external political opportunities (Diani 1996). Lega Nord's organisation is commonly treated as a secondary development, a minor force in the rise of the Northern question in Italy. Scholars did not explore what the party did-since grievances were conceptualised as the product of public dissatisfaction with political parties and with the impact of the crisis of the welfare state on disadvantaged groups. Lega Nord was conceived as a minimal party in terms of size, membership and mobilisation capacities, although some scholars have even classified Lega Nord as a mass party (Ricolfi, 1995). It is generally assumed that Lega Nord's leader is largely unconstrained by organisational dynamics in a party that he fashioned according to his own political tastes. The presence of Bossi and the emphasis on crisis conditions made the question of following of the party and allegiance to Lega Nord a matter of social pathology (Biorcio, 1991, 1997; Diani, 1994). Journalistic and scholarly writing has incorporated the term la base-also used within the party-to
describe party activists. Like the characterisations of Communist membership in the cold-war period, Lega Nord's activists are often portrayed as fanatic and irrational creatures.
