MARINA VILLA

La comunicazione politica e le elezioni amministrative. Il caso di Milano

N. 168

Summary — The campaign for the Administrative elections in June 1993 is an example of the new trends of political communication in Italy. Candidates’ communication in Milan is examined in the political marketing point of view, to show the means, the contents and the strategies that were more effective.

The study considers the political communication of the most important candidates to mayor (Bassetti, Borghini, Teso, Formentini, Dalla Chiesa); the new rules have increased the process of personalisation of politics and many candidates have been forced to use direct communication, a concrete language, "traditional" means (canvassing, posters and leaflets, meetings, letter and direct marketing) and militants.

With the majority system candidates have to bother about their image and win media respect (creating "media events"), but also address people and voluntary workers without spending a lot of money.

The new rules about political communication encourage the cheapest campaigns, of course new in Italy.