Two books, "Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony", and the "The Dark Heart of Italy (Berlusconi's?)," are reviewed below.

It seems nigh onto impossible for any authors to say anything good about Italy.
However, I loved the Italians describing "Belusconism" as "Americanismo."

Even more troubling is Ginsborg's suggestion that Italy's current plight, far from being an aberration, represents the direction in which many of the world's democracies are headed. (RAA: Speak to us, oh Chicken Little :)

Before he entered politics, Berlusconi, a "man of the Right," was not a born aristocrat, but he did achieve great success as a landowner. He began his career in the early '60s with the construction of two apartment complexes... His most celebrated success came with Milano 2, an upscale gated community in the Milan suburb of Segrate, boasting its own underground parking, artificial lake, manicured park space, hotel, schools, church, porticoed shopping district and cable television system.

When Milano 2 opened, the 10,000 residents were a "captive" audience for  — an afterthought on Berlusconi's part — a new local station, Telemilano, which became an enormous success, and in the coming years it acquired other local television stations across the country. By the mid-1980s, Berlusconi had a virtual monopoly of Italy's private television stations. Although they ostensibly remained locally operated, Berlusconi coordinated them so that they broadcast the same programs — even the same commercials — simultaneously. (RAA: Brilliant)

As Jones puts it, this was "national broadcasting in all but name" — significant because privately owned channels were then still forbidden by law to broadcast nationally. Berlusconi now had the same number of national networks — three — as the state and a much larger audience, thanks to a format modeled on American TV pap: variety shows, soap operas, game shows and movies (usually American B-movies). In just a few years, he had transformed a construction company into a media empire.

Berlusconi no longer worries about competing with RAI: As prime minister, he controls the three public channels too. It's a position he has seized with unsubtle diligence....

Berlusconi's interests are by no means restricted to television. He also owns Mondadori, Italy's largest publishing company; two daily newspapers; Radio Italy, a national commercial radio network; and the soccer team AC Milan.

He is something like President Bush, Rupert Murdoch, Donald Trump and George Steinbrenner rolled into one. [RAA: Do I read that to say that it takes those 4 to equal 1 Berlusconi, or he is four of our worst rolled into one :) ]

His likeness and voice are everywhere, especially come election time. In the run-up to the 2001 election, Mondadori sent a copy of his autohagiography, "An Italian Story," to every household in Italy. On the eve of the most recent round, the electorate received a text message from Berlusconi on their cellphones politely reminding them to vote.

As Ginsborg's book makes explicit, that in his opinion, Berlusconi entered politics not with the sole intention of serving the State but to enrich himself and Fininvest, his group of companies. He has often appeared to sacrifice the good of the nation to his own interests, creating what is, in effect, Italia 2. In recent months, however, he has faced his most difficult crises yet.

In June, his party, Forza Italia, suffered a disappointing showing in both the European parliamentary elections and Italy's regional elections, and there is a growing rift between Berlusconi and Gianfranco Fini, the leader of the "post-fascist" National Alliance party, Forza Italia's most powerful political ally. Still, Berlusconi recently celebrated an impressive milestone: In May, his government became Italy's longest-serving administration since World War II.

How has one of the world's largest and wealthiest democracies allowed its richest citizen to assume control of its government, its economy, its entertainment industry and its press? Jones' explanation, like his book, is full of great insight but ultimately frustrating.

"The Dark Heart of Italy" is a collection of Jones' impressions of Italy based on his experiences as a journalist and teacher of English in Parma. He is a scrupulous observer of daily life; the book's highlights include a moving description of his visit to a famous sanctuary in Puglia and his labyrinthine tangles with Italian bureaucracy at the local post office.

Yet he has a propensity for generalizations that tend to contradict his nuanced observations. He writes, for example, that as a political outsider Berlusconi benefited from "the anti-establishment vote," which "in Italy is always influential," whereas elsewhere he laments "the fact that old age and tradition are so dutifully deferred to."

Berlusconi's television propaganda is effective because "the public … is amazingly malleable" and "Italians seem hooked up to a lifestyle sell which has nothing to do with reality"; yet earlier in the book we read that "Italians, as viewers, are … less supine; whenever I watch TV with friends, they invariably shout 'cretin' at the television."

Jones' book is more a spirited travelogue of his years in Italy than a convincing portrait of the country he loves so dearly, a place so beautiful that "[i]t's often hard to find anything which is remotely ugly."

Ginsborg, on the other hand, finds plenty of ugliness. He agrees with Jones that factors endemic to Italian culture have benefited Berlusconi, such as the country's strong Catholic values (especially the principle of absolution for previous transgressions).

He also fault's its notoriously inefficient bureaucracy. Both authors point to the complicated legal process allowing criminals to remain free until their cases have passed through several levels of appeal; often, by the time the final appeal is heard, the statute of limitations has kicked in, and the case is thrown out.

[RAA: Ironically, if Ginsberg is correct, Belusconi apparently utilized two factors, as a rightist, he would be totally opposed to, Bureaucracy, and Lax Justice, that he would abolish if he had half a chance :)

Specifically, parliament, passed a law (later overturned by the constitutional court ) that granted legal immunity to a sitting prime minister, (RAA: very similar to that in effect in the US.)

It can be argued that the larger trends responsible for Berlusconi's ascendancy are not specific to Italy. As Ginsborg points out, the relationship between the media (especially television news) and political influence, the increasing range of powers assumed by the executive branch at the expense of a weakened judiciary and the Left's "incapacity to arouse enthusiasm for credible alternatives" are all issues familiar to many outside Italy.

Despite the political partnership of Forza Italia and the National Alliance, it is misleading to compare Berlusconi to Mussolini, as many commentators have (including Jones and Ginsborg, however delicately).

[RAA Note: How much confidence can you place in commentators that still confuse Fascism with Totalitarianism, rather than properly define it as National Socialism, a style of Marxism? But then we have all been subjected to that propaganda for decades.]

The model perfected by Berlusconi is not fascism or corporatism or even capitalism.
The Italians have their own word for it: "Americanismo."

Silvio Berlusconi Television, Power and Patrimony, Paul Ginsborg Verso:190 pp, $25 The Dark Heart of Italy, Tobias Jones North Point Press: 314 pp., $24
Los Angeles Times
By Nathaniel Rich
Aug 1 2004

For the full text see:
calendarlive.com: Building a new Roman empire
http://www.calendarlive.com/books/bookreview/
cl-bk-rich1aug01,2,4806102.story?coll=cl-bookreview