Leaders of Lithuanian political parties: Berlusconization as a European way of personalized leadership?

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Amerikietinimas; Berluskocionizmas; Individualizuotas vadovavimas; Lyderystė; Politinis procesas; Politinė komunikacija; Politinės partijos; Populizmas; Americanization; Berlusconization; Leadership; Lithuania; Personalized leadership; Political communication; Political parties; Political process; Populism.

ENPolitical leadership is neither new nor an undiscussed concept in Europe. Even more – for the past twenty years, the concept of political leadership has been widely discussed within the political science and especially the sphere of political communication. The analysis of political leaders can be described with different ‘-zation’ concepts, such as personalization, Americanization, mediatisation, modernization, professionalization, scientificization, presidentialization and lately Berlusconization. All these concepts have in common the importance of media and the growing importance of the role of leaders’ personalities. Another important aspect, related to these concepts in regard of personalized leadership analysis, is the shift from American trends to European ones. Earlier, Americanization was one of the most popular concepts analysing the relations between media and politicians in elections, campaigns and daily communication matters. Because these strategies were successful in the United States, they were carefully observed and consequently copied in other countries. Today we can see that another - European concept, called Berlusconization has emerged. The aim of this paper is twofold: at first, to discuss the concept of Berlusconization, its European way and its differences from the Americanization concept. The second purpose of the paper is more related to the Lithuanian case analysis. As in some aspects Lithuania can be seen as similar to Italy (catholic, highly conflicting political culture, multiparty systems) it is important to evaluate the Berlusconization aspects in Lithuanian political parties’ leaders’ communication through the media as: building appealing images; establishing a direct an emotional link with voters; creating media events and going personal. [From the publication]