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110 | THE PROFESSIONALISM OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

In many cases, and at a certain point in their career, party bureaucrats could also
assume a position in community government (both at the level of central government
and decentralised local communities, or linked positions) so starting a new career in
government that could last for their entire life as they moved from one position to
another. In such cases, they were fulfilling an ‘administration function’ (Mastropaolo,
1986). In this new position, their role as agents of communication became less
important, as they were now required to have good skills in government, in running the
government apparatuses, in decision making processes. In other words, their formal
and informal roles in Italian politics were a laboratory for these individuals, mainly
because of the strength of the party apparatuses and their diffusion and capacity to
permeate every sphere of society.

Thanks to the existence of party bureaucrats (together with a large number of activists),
mass parties developed up to the beginning of the Fascist period and were able to
survive the experience of Fascism, and play a very important role in the Resistance and
in reestablishing democracy at the end of the Second World War. As their importance
increased,so did their numbers.

In recent years, this kind of political professionalism has become much less important
for a number of different reasons.The decline of party bureaucrats, which started in the
1980s, has accelerated with the appearance of Berlusconi in the political arena, as he
identified more general changes that were taking place in society and that were
affecting the position and the role of party bureaucrats. First of all, the dramatic
transformations (secularisation, the disappearance of the previous social and
economical cleavages) that affected most Western democracies (Panebianco, 1988),
have led to the progressive weakening of the traditional mass parties and therefore of
The Professionalisation of Political Communication
their communication apparatus, based on the work of party bureaucrats and activists.
The links between political parties and citizens have weakened, so that the latter no
longer depend on the former for their information, their beliefs and values. The
influence of political parties over society has also diminished and, in the same way, their
organisations have weakened to the point of no longer being able to employ as large a
number of workers as they had done in the past, or to support the candidates running
for a position.The decrease in party membership is the best indicator of this evolution.
Two examples well illustrate this: In 1955, the PCI had 2,090,006 paid up members, in
1995 the figure was 682.290; in 1955, the DC had 1,186,785 members but in 1995 only
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160,000. As mass parties have decreased their role in society, mass communication has
become the main agency of political socialisation.

Secondly, the Italian political system underwent dramatic changes following the
scandals and the judiciary inquiries known as ‘Tangentopoli’ (bribery city) that caused
the death of most of the parties and the arrest of many important political leaders.The
apparatuses of the Christian Democracts and the Socialist Party completely
disappeared, while the biggest political machine, the ex-Communist Party, changed its
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