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POLITICAL PROFESSIONALISM IN ITALY | 119

was more strategic than technical and for 1.4%,this support had a decisive influence on
campaign strategy.

Chart n.3. - What kind of support did you get in 2001 campaign?

60 56,6
50

40
30
23,7
20 16,4

10
1,8 1,4
0
Purely technical More technical than strategic Both technical and strategic More strategic than technical Decisive influence on campaign strategy

Nevertheless, paid professionals were of some importance in making the electoral
victory possible: 12.7% of the interviewed (Table 1) state that their election would not
have been possible without the support of those people.

Table 1. How would you judge the role of paid professionals in the 2001 campaign?

Without his support I couldn’t have campaigned 12.7 %
In some measure he was important for my election 22.4%
He was important in improving some of my campaign 60.0%
He was not important at all 4.9%

100.0%

It is interesting to see which parties are the most involved in the professionalisation of
political communication. From our data, we can see that candidates from Forza Italia
(Berlusconi’s party) and Alleanza Nazionale (the rightist party) have used external
professionals as have candidates from la Margherita (the centre left party of which
Rutelli, Berlusconi’s opponent in 2001, was the leader).In contrast, candidates from Lega
Nord made the least use of external professionals. This data is of some interest:
undoubtedly Forza Italia is the party with the leanest and smallest organisation and is, Political Professionalism in Italy
therefore, unable to support local candidates, who need to turn to external
professionals from whose field the candidates themselves very often come.At the same
time, as we have seen, this is the party that has mostly elaborated ‘a culture of
marketing’, taking strategies and instruments from fields outside politics, mainly from
business and corporate culture. 121