ABSTRACT
Following its sudden emergence, Forza Italia was described as a ‘virtual’ party (McCarthy 1996). However, it would become more institutionalised over time, and following electoral setbacks, notably in 1996, it would develop deeper organisational roots. The invention of a political party, almost from scratch, by Silvio Berlusconi at the beginning of 1994 transformed the political landscape in Italy, offering political scientists an ideal example of the electoral-professional model of party organisation, and providing a whole new ball game for Italian voters when it came to the manipulation of mass communications and leadership style. The importation into Italian politics of modern techniques of marketing and consumer polling was central to the success of the new party. This chapter will explore the development of Forza Italia, drawing particular attention to the way in which Berlusconi was able to draw on the organisational strengths, personnel and finances of his Fininvest business empire to construct a new party. Such were the interconnections between Fininvest and Forza Italia that the term ‘business-firm’ party would become particularly apt to define the model of party organisation that Berlusconi pioneered. Discussion of Forza Italia is impossible without highlighting the unique role played by its leader and founder. Hence, particular attention will be paid to Berlusconi’s personalised and charismatic leadership of the party, and of the centre-right coalition as a whole. Examination of Berlusconi’s leadership and his style and form of political communication is also central to understanding the nature of the party’s populism and the way in which it utilises core aspects of populism, combining them with more peripheral facets of populism that depend on the particular context of political competition in Italy. This also needs to be put in the context of a broader examination of Forza Italia’s ideological nature, requiring an analysis of key programmatic documents. However, the dominant role played by Forza Italia in the centre-right coalition, and Berlusconi’s leadership position within it, make it difficult to separate an analysis of Forza Italia’s political platform from that of the coalition as a whole. Thus joint documents adopted by the coalition will also be analysed.
