Pole of Good Government

The Pole of Good Government (Italian: Polo del Buon Governo) was a centre-right electoral, and later political alliance in Italy, launched at the 1994 general election by Silvio Berlusconi.^[1] Its counterpart in Northern Italy was the Pole of Freedoms, both forming the first incarnation of the centre-right coalition.

Pole of Good Government Polo del Buon Governo
Leader	Silvio Berlusconi Gianfranco Fini
Founded	1994
Dissolved	1995
Succeeded by	Pole for Freedoms
Political position	Centre-right
National affiliation	with Pole of Freedoms Centre-right coalition
Politics of Italy Political parties Elections

History

The alliance was composed primarily of Forza Italia (FI) and the National Alliance (AN), while also including the Christian Democratic Centre (CCD), Union of the Centre (UdC) and Liberal Democratic Pole (PLD).^[2][3] The Pole of Good Government was present only in most of Southern Italy, while the Pole of Freedoms, composed of Forza Italia and the Lega Nord, without the National Alliance, was present in Northern Italy.^[4]

The term "Pole of Good Government" (as that of "Pole of Freedoms") had no official character: the logo that identified the coalition included just the symbols of the lists that were part of the alliance (furthermore, this symbol was only present for the election of the Senate). However, this alliance resulted stronger than its Northern counterpart: it run in the 1994 Italian local elections in all the country and consequently against the League in Northern Italy.

After the fall of the Berlusconi I Cabinet because of disagreements with the Lega Nord, the alliance ended. In its place, Forza Italia, the National Alliance and Christian Democratic Centre formed another alliance, the Pole for Freedoms, which in 2000, after the re-entry of Lega Nord, was renamed House of Freedoms.^[5]

Composition

It was initially composed of the following political parties:

Party		Ideology	Leader
	Forza Italia (FI)	Liberal conservatism	Silvio Berlusconi
	National Alliance-Italian Social Movement (AN-MSI)	National conservatism	Gianfranco Fini
	Christian Democratic Centre (CCD)	Christian democracy	Pier Ferdinando Casini
	Union of the Centre (UdC)	Liberalism	Raffaele Costa
	Liberal Democratic Pole (PLD)	Liberalism	Adriano Teso

Election results

Election	Leader	Chamber of Deputies
		Votes	%	Seats
1994	Silvio Berlusconi	5,732,890	14.89	129 / 475

Election	Leader	Senate of the Republic
		Votes	%	Seats
1994	Silvio Berlusconi	4,544,573	13.74	64 / 315

References

1. Sona Nadenichek Golder (2006). The Logic of Pre-electoral Coalition Formation. Ohio State University Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8142-1029-1.
2. Isabella Pezzini (2001). "Advertising politics on television: the party election broadcast". In Luciano Chelos; Lucio Sponza (eds.). The Art of Persuasion: Political Communication in Italy from 1945 to the 1990s. Manchester University Press. pp. 187–188. ISBN 978-0-7190-4170-9.
3. Stefan Köppl (2007). Das politische System Italiens: Eine Einführung. Springer-Verlag. p. 98. ISBN 978-3-531-14068-1.
4. Mark Donovan (2004). "The Italian State: No Longer Catholic, no Longer Christian". In Zsolt Enyedi; John T.S. Madeley (eds.). Church and State in Contemporary Europe. Routledge. p. 102. ISBN 978-1-135-76141-7.
5. Vittorio Vandelli (2014). 1994–2014 Berlusconi's new ventennio. Vittorio Vandelli. p. 189. ISBN 978-605-03-2890-5.