The bane of Italy
http://www.economist.com/books/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7109168
Jun 29th 2006
From The Economist print edition
ALEXANDER STILLE'S new book on Silvio Berlusconi, the flamboyant former
Italian prime minister, is neither a biography nor a work of
investigative journalism. Its real value is that it represents the
first attempt, in English at least, to recount in a readable fashion
the story, not of Mr Berlusconi himself, but of Berlusconi-ism. That
gives it a wide appeal, for, as its author argues persuasively,
Berlusconi-ism is the extrapolation to grotesque extremes of a
phenomenon that has gradually, and all too imperceptibly, become
widespread.
Mr Stille is at his best when he describes how a man with a corporation
with billions of dollars of debt succeeded in less than eight months,
between 1993 and 1994, in turning himself into his country's leader.
Along the way, he identifies various keys to Mr Berlusconi's success.
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