Impunity: Berlusconi's Goal and Its Consequences

by Charles Young

Is the winner of a democratic election entitled to preferential treatment in the law courts Which should take democracy or the rule of law The second edition of this important book tells the often alarming, sometimes comical story of the man who is both Italy s prime minister and the owner of its dominant media empire. His indictment in 2011 for juvenile prostitution and abuse of office (in addition to corruption and tax fraud) merged two previously distinct threats to his political career - sex scandals and legal problems. In response, new attempts to secure his immunity pose yet more intense threats to the justice system. Freedom and democracy are his rallying cries - yet he threatens to cut down the only trees capable of bearing such the rule of law and a plurality of independent information sources. Berlusconi promised a liberalising revolution to revitalise Italy s economy. Yet, with Berlusconi in power for all but two of the years since his election in 2001, Italy is the only major country in which per capita output is well below the 2001 level. He promised to cut the public sector - yet its share of the economy, which had fallen before 2001, has steadily risen since. IMPUNITY tells the story of his business empire with its impenetrable financial engineering; his bold diversification into politics; the allegations of Mafia connections; the legal battles and the laws his governments have enacted to try to protect him; the conflicts of interest; the sex scandals which put the word bunga-bunga into many dictionaries and the underlying issue of democracy versus the rule of law.

Paperback

First published April 11, 2010

Reviews

[Michael Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

When the Economist famously described Berlusconi as the man who screwed a country, Young suggests that they were being kind. Meticulously Young sets out a sorry tale of corruption, incompetence and sleaze. As the tragedy of Christian Democrat subversion of Italian democracy turns into the farce of Berlusconi, this books sets out the triple dangers of economic stagnation, monopolistic control of information and a creeping personality cult that has made Italy the laughing stock of Europe.