Italian political science and Italian politics: the (curious) elephant in the room

Abstract

Using as a starting point the 40th anniversary of Italian political science in 2013 and the volume published to mark this occasion, this article evaluates the state of the discipline today. The discipline’s late birth, small size and competition from other disciplines help to explain its incomplete institutionalisation. Yet, what is too often overlooked is a detailed analysis of the sub-fields of Italian political science, how they have changed over time and what this might signal. Using an analogous volume published 24 years earlier, an analysis of the sub-fields reveals a discipline undergoing significant change through the emergence of new sub-fields accounting for at least a quarter of Italian political science research today. This development is important because of the historical and continuing preponderance of research on Italian politics amongst Italian political scientists. It is the (curious) elephant in the room: visible and clearly shaping Italian political science but rarely mentioned; curious, because, for all this, Italian political science remains dissatisfied with its lack of ‘relevance’ to the Italian world beyond academe. The discipline’s future will likely be shaped by the possibilities of whether and how this preponderance is overcome.