'berlusconi' Category
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Nov062008
Why hasn’t the left done more about Berlusconi’s conflict of interest? Part 2
A second argument, also used by Ginsborg, is that they didn’t do more because they were afraid it would be unpopular. That is, many centre-left politicians reasoned something like this:
anyone who would support our taking action against Berlusconi is likely to vote for us anyway; but
there are a large number of people who would oppose [...] -
Nov062008
Why hasn’t the left done more about Berlusconi’s conflict of interest?
Assume that the left hasn’t done that much to tackle the issue of Berlusconi’s conflict of interest. Why not?
One explanation might be that many parties within the broad left-wing coalitions, and many individuals within Italian politics more generally, are inclined to forgive past crimes in order to make life easier or to avoid division.
This is [...] -
Oct202008
How anomalous is Berlusconi?
The control that Silvio Berlusconi has over Italian television is often described as an ‘anomaly’ (Boogerd-Quaak 2004, § 60, Haraszti 2005, p. 2, Blatmann 2003). Although this description is useful for directing our attention to the case, it is unhelpful when it comes to explaining the how, what, and why of Berlusconi’s control.
And whilst Berlusconi’s [...] -
May232008
Parliamentary manouevres in the dark
Four months ago, the European Court of Justice ruled that one of Silvio Berlusconi’s stations, ReteQuattro, was broadcasting illegally on frequencies owned by another television company, Europa 7.
Berlusconi’s government is now trying to prevent that ruling from having effect. Not only that, but they’re doing it in a very under-hand way.
In April, just before the [...] -
May122008
Berlusconi IV: under-secretaries announced
PRESIDENZA DEL CONSIGLIO:
Maurizio BALOCCHI (Semplificazione normativa) – Lega Nord
Paolo BONAIUTI (Editoria) – Forza Italia
Michela Vittoria BRAMBILLA (Turismo) – Forza Italia
Aldo BRANCHER (Federalismo) – Forza Italia
Rocco CRIMI (Sport) – Forza Italia
Carlo Amedeo GIOVANARDI (Famiglia, droga e Servizio civile) – Liberali
Gianfranco MICCICHÈ (CIPE) – Forza Italia
AFFARI ESTERI
Stefania Gabriella Anastasia CRAXI – Forza Italia
Alfredo MANTICA – Alleanza Nazionale
Enzo [...] -
May082008
Berlusconi IV: here we go again
For the fourth time in fourteen years, Berlusconi has met with the President of the Republic and been asked to form a government. He’s broken with precedence, and instead of accepting the post with riserva (that is, whilst awaiting the other parties’ agreement on the composition of the government), has presented a list of ministers [...]
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Apr182008
How long will the Berlusconi government last?
When the Prodi government fell, I posted a note explaining how the government’s duration could have been predicted by models from political science. I thought I would do the same for the Berlusconi government now that we know the seat distribution in the Senate.
The model [King et al. 1990] depends on seven variables. The [...] -
Apr042008
But I thought there were no more polls?
According to the law on electoral polling, no opinion polls are to be published (or rather, “disseminated”) within the last fifteen days of the campaign. I presume the intent is so that voters aren’t influenced by polling and bounced into one of the two main effects (the band-wagon and under-dog effects respectively).
Of course, this only [...] -
Sep122007
Probity
Two items connected by disregard for ethics. In Sweden, a TV4 journalist undermines the country’s reputation for probity for accepting bribes to portray favourably a criminal investigation under appeal. According to Le Monde:
Dans la première affaire, le plaignant affirme que le journaliste de TV4 aurait touché 43 500 euros pour diffuser un reportage afin d’aider [...] -
Jul252007
Besök till TV-huset
Despite the awful (brutalist) architecture outside, I spent an enjoyable afternoon being shown around Sveriges Television (SVT) today. The building itself – the TV-hus – is large, with six stages and a large props department. The wisdom of having stages, carpentry and costume teams in what is relatively expensive real estate north of Djurgarden and [...]