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Umberto Bossi: charisma, personality and leadership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 January 2016

Richard Barraclough
Richard Barraclough*
Affiliation:
School of European Studies, University of Wales Cardiff, PO Box 908, Cardiff, CF1 3YQ, UK. E-mail: barraclough@cardiff.ac.uk
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Summary

The Northern League is sometimes referred to as a ‘charismatic party’. The reason for this description is the presence of a highly visible—and audible—leader: Umberto Bossi. This article aims to demonstrate that Bossi is perceived as a charismatic leader largely thanks to a constructed personality and image which is designed to symbolize the League's identity. Since it is this image, along with Bossi's organizational skills and tactical abilities, rather than his ‘charisma’ which is the basis of his authority within the League, it is erroneous to regard the League as a true example of a charismatic party.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Italy , Volume 3 , Issue 2: Charisma and the cult of personality in modern Italy , November 1998 , pp. 263 - 269
Copyright
Copyright © Association for the study of Modern Italy 

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References

Notes

1. Quoted in La Tribuna di Treviso, 23 April 1996.Google Scholar

2. Quoted in Diamanti, Ilvo, La Lega: geografia, storia e sociologia di un soggetto politico, Donzelli, Rome, 1995, p. 58.Google Scholar

3. See Bonsaver, Guido, ‘Dialect, Culture, and Politics: The Northern League(s)’, Journal of the Institute of Romance Studies, Supplement 1, 1996, pp. 97–107.Google Scholar

4. Quoted in La Repubblica, 12 February 1995.Google Scholar

5. Quoted in La Repubblica, 12 February 1995.Google Scholar

6. Panebianco, Angelo, Political Parties: Organization and Power, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988, p. 144.Google Scholar