Silvio Berlusconi e o Berlusconismo: uma proposta de leitura

Almost 23 years ago, Italy and the world witnessed the triumphal entrance of Silvio Berlusconi into politics. This was achieved through television and the monopoly control that was in the hands of the magnate. Just two months later, Berlusconi had become prime minister and achieving this feat through the powerful deployment of Forza Italia, a new party set up by Berlusconi and his most faithful supporters. This was not some episodic events as, throughout the next two decades, even if with varying levels of intensity and scope, the presence of Cavaliere would prove determinant to Italian and world politics and correspondingly generating a notable cultural impact on civil society. This dissertation seeks to examine the emergence and consolidation of that now known as Berlusconism, a new paradigm for doing politics that came about with the arrival of Berlusconi in office. To this end, this dissertation analyses not only the political events subsequent to 1994 but also the state of Italian politics and society in the 1970s and 1980s. These effectively represent the years Berlusconism spent in incubation and with Berlusconi’s past business dealings, in various areas but especially in the media, highly interdependent with his later political activities. Berlusconi bursting onto the political scene undoubtedly constitutes a revolutionary landmark, which transformed not only the Italian social and cultural system but also the way Italians represent themselves and are represented. In addition to tracing the origins and growth of Berlusconism, through the study of a selection of election campaign posters, anchored in the methods applied by Culture Studies, and more specific by Visual Culture analysis, this dissertation furthermore seeks to demonstrate how and to what extent Berlusconism established a new paradigm given its unprecedented way of grasping and portraying politics, the institutions, culture and society, both in Italy and internationally.