A lasting legacy? : a critical political economy perspective on Berlusconism and its afterlives

Within the EU Polycrisis, Italy is a case in point for understanding political projects of neoliberalization and the related rise of far-right forces, as a result of an interplay of domestic and international dynamics. The present contribution builds on the argument that, in order to understand the current conjuncture, we need an historical grounding. Therefore, it proposes a critical political economy analysis of Berlusconi’s hegemonic project and of how its legacy shapes Italy’s current politico-economic landscape, marked by the Polycrisis and the rise of far-right forces. In fact, the recent death of Silvio Berlusconi – the absolute protagonist of the Italian Second Republic since the 1990s – has sparked a lively debate in domestic and international circles about his political legacy. Nevertheless, critical perspectives on this are still missing: the tone of the debate easily falls into culturalism and moralist concerns that remain blind to key political-economic factors. We seek to address this gap by offering a theoretically grounded empirical study within critical political economy, focusing on the political-economic project advanced by Berlusconi’s governments. This entails analysing multiple dimensions, including ideology and discourse, policymaking, the social blocs sustaining Berlusconi’s power over time, and, ultimately, the State project – that is, how Berlusconi sought to reshape State apparatuses, powers, and interventions. In our view, this perspective is essential for understanding the evolving nature of right-wing hegemonic projects and assessing the broader implications of Berlusconi’s legacy for the current political landscape – particularly concerning Giorgia Meloni’s government and ongoing debates on competing hegemonic projects and transnational social forces.