This textbook, from one of Italy's most eminent scholars, provides broad coverage and critique of Italian politics and society. "Most unexpected, though not unpredictable, events have deeply changed Italian politics in recent years. Italy is not the 'mistero buffo' no outsider can understand. Jettisoning stereotypes and resorting to a thoughtful analysis nurtured by comparative knowledge, Gianfranco Pasquino offers to us all a formidable lesson in political science." - Giuliano Amato, Prime Minister of Italy (1992-93; 2000-01). "Gianfranco Pasquino, an authority on Italian politics and perceptive commentator, provides a sharp and thoughtful analysis of Italy's political system and institutions, their foundations and changes over the last decades. Anyone interested in understanding Italian democracy and its problems would be well advised to read this book."- Ilaria Favretto, Kingston University, UK. "Italian politics may appear complicated - even byzantine - and not only to outsiders. Gianfranco Pasquino lifts the veil with the skill of a consummate expert. He provides an indispensable tool to explain and analyse, sometimes polemically, the intricacies of the Italian political system and does so with a healthy dose of comparative awareness." - Donald Sassoon, Queen Mary, University of London, UK. "The authoritative perspective on Italy's political decline: an outstanding distillation of a lifetime's study of Italian politics." - David Hine, Christ Church College Oxford, UK.