Alberto Toscano, author of Fanaticism, writes about Berlusconi's role as the buffoonish face of Italian politics for the Guardian.

With the elections looking likely to be in March, Toscano considers "what may lie on the other side of Berlusconismo"...

Toscano underlines that the country's problems run deeper than its blundering current premier:

Berlusconi's persona, equal parts cruise-ship entertainer and megalomaniac company boss (his previous vocations), has monopolised Italian politics for more than 15 years. Drawing attention to his character rather than his policies, and forcing the opposition on to a media terrain he dominates, Berlusconi's faux pas could almost be seen as part of a decoy strategy, averting any real discussion of the country and its problems ...

Removing Berlusconi, without radically addressing how far the whole society has regressed in the last two decades, will simply mean Italy will become, to borrow one of the centre-left's slogans, "a normal country"—that is to say, in the present European and global context, increasingly unequal, prejudiced and fearful ...

It is time to abandon the delusion that one can enact social-democratic ends with neoliberal means, and to find a contemporary vocabulary to address the often one-sided conflict between labour and capital which lies behind rising inequality and work "flexibility". Otherwise, Italy will simply continue on the same disastrous path with a more presentable face at its helm.

Visit the Guardian to read the article in full.

Alberto Toscano will be in discussion with Robert Eaglestone at the Forum for European Philosophy at the LSE on Monday 11 October. 

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