ABSTRACT
The chapter examines certain manifestations of anti-politics in Italy from the post-war years to the mid-1990s. It starts by presenting and commenting on certain sections of the first surveys of public opinion conducted in Italy in the 1950s and 1960s concerning the political values and attitudes of the nation's citizens. These surveys, which are generally afforded little importance in studies of Italian political culture, show that disaffection with politics was already a significant phenomenon in the very earliest days of the Republic. The data also suggest that during those years, anti-political feelings co-existed with strong forms of political participation and mobilisation. The chapter specifically discusses the history of the Common Man Movement and its key figure Guglielmo Giannini. This is followed by an examination of the polemical campaign against the “partitocracy” conducted during the 1950s, principally by the jurist Giuseppe Maranini. The analysis subsequently moves forward to the early 1990s. During this period, civil society fostered anti-political rhetoric, and this was to leave a clear mark on the political culture of the Italian people. The chapter concludes with an analysis of the political adventures of Silvio Berlusconi, otherwise known as the “knight of anti-politics”, and of his political creation, the Forza Italia party.
