La leadership politica in Italia alla luce della tradizione comica nazionale

• Main Author: Maria Pia Pozzato
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Open Journals 2014-12-01
• Series: Incontri: Rivista Europea di Studi Italiani
• Subjects: Politica; spettacolo; tradizione comica italiana; consenso; media
• Online Access: http://www.rivista-incontri.nl/articles/10.18352/incontri.9879/

Political leadership in Italy in the light of the national comical traditionThis essay deals with humour and satire in politics. The issue of humour is contextualized within a wider cultural phenomenon called ‘show civilisation’ or ‘schermopolis’, i.e. the pervasiveness of screens in our everyday life. In doing so I will consider the role of new media and social networks in fostering the use of humour in political discourse. Next I will try to find a new framework for forms of popularity in politics by adapting to the current conjuncture the definitions given by Eric Landowsky at the end of the 1980s. Nowadays the politician-vedette is indeed the most popular form within the show civilisation phenomenon mentioned above. I will demonstrate that some Italian versions of this figure seem inspired by a rich Italian Comedy tradition. Finally, I will propose a number of hypotheses about the ways in which leaders obtain electoral consensus, for example through physical attractiveness, sympathy, and their ability to amuse people. In this perspective, a leader who is good for a laugh seems automatically a good leader.