Thinkers and political figures
Portrait: Photograph, 2010, via Wikimedia Commons (opens in a new tab) · Public domain
Silvio Berlusconi
- Country
- Italy
- Era
- 1936–2023
- Tradition
- Media populism, liberal conservatism
Media proprietor who founded a party in three months, won the election, and governed Italy across four terms while owning most of its commercial television — the template for personalised media-driven politics in Europe.
01
Documented positions
Documented positions come from the sources listed. Similarity is this project’s inference from those positions, and is a much weaker claim.
- Founded Forza Italia in 1994 and won the election within months, running as an outsider against the political class
- Governed while retaining ownership of Italy’s three largest commercial broadcasters
- Passed laws shortening statutes of limitation and granting the prime minister immunity from prosecution
- Cut income and inheritance taxes and pursued labour market flexibility
- Governed in coalition with the separatist Northern League and the post-fascist National Alliance
- Tightened immigration law, criminalising illegal entry, and signed an agreement with Libya to return migrants at sea
- Maintained unusually close personal relations with Vladimir Putin
02
Where it sits on each dimension
Wealth and inequality
78
RedistributionMarket outcomes
Evidence: Well documented
The state in the economy
74
Active stateLimited state
Evidence: Well documented
Personal liberty
45
Collective orderIndividual freedom
Evidence: Documented
Tradition and change
30
ContinuityReform
Evidence: Documented
Nation and the world
72
InternationalistNationalist
Evidence: Well documented
Religion and the state
60
Secular stateReligion in public life
Evidence: Documented
Power and its limits
20
Concentrated authorityChecks and pluralism
Evidence: Well documented
Environment and growth
25
Production firstProtection first
Evidence: Documented
Dimensions left unscored, for want of evidence: Crime and punishment
Sources
- Paul Ginsborg, Silvio Berlusconi: Television, Power and Patrimony · Verso · 2004
- The Berlusconi Years · The Economist · 2011
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