While we're waiting for the results, I've been meaning to recommend Alexander Stille's dissection of Silvio Berlusconi's rise, The Sack of Rome. Italy is a fascinating political ecosphere, not only for its rampant, astonishing corruption -- corruption that's epic, magnificent, even theatric in scope -- but for the weakness of its institutions, and the peculiar outcomes such an unprotected political sphere generates. "Fascism was invented in Italy," writes Stille, "as was the Mafia, and left-wing terrorism went further in Italy than in any European country. This is not to say that Berlusconi is a Fascist, Mafioso, or terrorist, but all the phenomena are by-products of a weak democracy with few institutional checks and balances. As a country late to unify and industrialize, Italy is a place where all the strains and problems of modernity are present, but with few of the safeguards that exist in older, more stable, nations; ideas get taken to their logical extreme, where they can be seen with peculiar clarity. The increasingly close relations among big money, politics, and television are hugely important everywhere, but in Italy, where a major media business, in the form of Berlusconi, has taken power, they have achieved a kid of apotheosis."I hadn't realized just how central Berlusconi was to Italy's economic life. He owns most of the private television networks, own major publishing houses, owns some of the main newspapers and magazines, owns finance institutions, owns insurance companies, owns polling outfits, owns theatres, etc, etc, etc. And he turned this huge corporate beast into a dedicated campaign machine. It's fascinating, and chilling, to watch. Highly recommended. NEW HAMPSHIRE DISTRACTION BLOGGING.
While we're waiting for the results, I've been meaning to recommend Alexander Stille's dissection of Silvio Berlusconi's rise, The Sack of Rome. Italy is a fascinating political ecosphere, not only for its rampant, astonishing corruption -- corruption that's epic, magnificent, even theatric in scope -- but for the weakness of its institutions, and the peculiar outcomes such an unprotected political sphere generates. "Fascism was invented in Italy," writes Stille, "as was the Mafia, and left-wing terrorism went further in Italy than in any European country. This is not to say that Berlusconi is a Fascist, Mafioso, or terrorist, but all the phenomena are by-products of a weak democracy with few institutional checks and balances. As a country late to unify and industrialize, Italy is a place where all the strains and problems of modernity are present, but with few of the safeguards that exist in older, more stable, nations; ideas get taken to their logical extreme, where they can be seen with peculiar clarity. The increasingly close relations among big money, politics, and television are hugely important everywhere, but in Italy, where a major media business, in the form of Berlusconi, has taken power, they have achieved a kid of apotheosis."I hadn't realized just how central Berlusconi was to Italy's economic life. He owns most of the private television networks, own major publishing houses, owns some of the main newspapers and magazines, owns finance institutions, owns insurance companies, owns polling outfits, owns theatres, etc, etc, etc. And he turned this huge corporate beast into a dedicated campaign machine. It's fascinating, and chilling, to watch. Highly recommended. 
