Personalisation is the most relevant political phenomenon of our time. Although its scope and degree can vary according to regime type, national and cultural environments, and the time span under consideration, personalisation refers to a shift from collective to individual actors and institutions. The rise of single leaders in the new democratic landscape may be considered as the result of three interrelated processes: a) the development of a direct—not mediated by parties and often emotional—relationship with citizens, so that the leader assumes the role of a political representative “above the party” and the main channel for collecting the popular vote; b) the trend towards a monocratic principle of political action, so that leaders tend to become the true dominus of party organization, while also increasing their control over governmental activities; c) the tendency of political leaders to use their role for private ends, mainly as a springboard for future careers in the business and financial world. The combination and cumulation of these factors may undermine the autonomy of politics and, in the end, transform representative democracy.
Yet, despite the relevance of such processes, only recently political scientists have begun investigating the emergence of «personal leaders». This article aims at providing a framework for analysis for personal leadership, with a particular reference to Italy in its never-ending transition to a post-particratic regime. With the collapse of traditional governing parties paving the road for an extensive personalisation of the country’s political system at both national and local level, Italy has anticipated trends now established in several Western countries, thus becoming a laboratory of personal politics. The final part of the article will question whether the impact of personalisation is also affecting the relationship between declining democracies and the rise of new autocratic regimes.