Antipolitics in Power. Populist language as a tool for government

The book is the American translation of a book published originally in Italian by Il Mulino "L'antipolitica al governo" (2006). The American edition has been extended to include some more recent developments in Italian politics, namely the 2008 elections and the return of Berlusconi to government. At its core, the language of antipolitics consists of the criticism and the attack to the establishment and the ruling elites because they are incompetent, manipulative and serving only their self-interests. The book analyzes the case of some leaders, quite different in terms of character, personal history, cultural references, ideology and national context, who have in common the use of language of antipolitics in power. de Gaulle, Reagan and Berlusconi belong to that small minority of populist leaders who managed to build sufficient popular consensus to hold the highest executive offices. Moreover they have in common that they pioneered in the use of television as a means of establishing a direct and personal relationship with the people. Through the illustration and analysis of such individual cases, the book offers new insights on how mass media continue to serve as instruments of antipolitical leadership in government and why citizens seem to receive these pressures favorably, so much that in modern democracy the personal link between a political leader and the people appears more and more important. For a more extended description of the book see also the publisher webpage http://www.hamptonpress.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=1-57273-982-6