Managing communication in the Prime Minister’s Office, 1988–2012

Abstract

The permanent campaign has reinforced the centrality of communication and opinion polling as practices designed to rasie public awareness, understanding and acceptance of government decisions. Over time, the weakening of traditional political intermediaries and the presidentialisation of politics has increased the need to centralise the management of government communication and to monitor its impact. Of course, governments -and presidents, especially -have been the main actors, and the first to understand the importance of communication in maintaining popular support. The consequence is that the need to centralise the management of government communication and monitor its impact has grown over time. In this context, a direct relationship with the public becomes necessary for support management, with the effect of creating a democracy that is more participatory in theory but more centralised in practice -even more so when there is overlap between communication for the winning and the exercise of power, which the permanent campaign requires. In Europe, in the wake of the American experience, government communication has tended to increase at central level, to take a more institutionalised and centralised form, giving pride of place to monitoring public opinion. This article describes the Italian government communication framework, examining the institutionalisation of the way public opinion is monitored at the highest government level.

Personal leaders and party change: Italy in comparative perspective

“…of the way the leaders interact with the public at large in the era of personalization. Following the US route, where the spread of the plebiscitary presidency meant that by 1960 'the pollster became a regular part of the inner core of each White House and presidential candidate organization' (Lowi, 1985: 62), European prime ministers have institutionalized offices at the national level in order to monitor public opinion and to become more visible and popular in the eyes of the citizens in a sort of permanent campaign (Heith, 2004;Reda, 2013). However, popularity may also result in a boomerang effect for political leaders.…”