The Development and Institutionalization of Political Science in Italy
| Published date | 01 January 1987 |
| DOI | 10.1177/019251218700800104 |
| Date | 01 January 1987 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
41
The
Development
and
Institutionalization
of
Political
Science
in
Italy
LUIGI
GRAZIANO
ABSTRACT.
Italian
political
science
has
grown
remarkably
in
the
last
two
decades
both
in
quantity
and
quality.
Such
a
growth,
however,
came
much
later
than
in
other
European
countries
due
to
a
number
of
cultural
and
institutional
obstacles.
The
development
of
the
discipline
and
the
timing
of
such
development
are
seen
as
the
result
of
interaction
of
four
broad
sets
of
factors.
They
are:
(1)
the
effort
by
scholars
in
the
1960s
to
establish
political
science
as
a
distinct
field
of
study;
(2)
the
social
and
economic
development
of
Italian
society,
which
called
for
reform
and
political
modernization;
(3)
the
push
from
the
outside,
especially
the
impact
of
American
political
science
and
behaviouralism;
and
(4)
changes
in
the
Italian
university
system.
The
structure
and
degree
of
institutionalization
of
the
profession
in
today’s
Italy
are
briefly
reviewed
in
the
final
section.
Introduction
The
present
mood
in
Italian
political
science
may
be
best
described
as
one
of
measured
satisfaction.
Not
that
there
is
a
lack
of
awareness
of persistent
shortcomings
or
of
the
need -
felt
by
practitioners
in
a
number
of
countries -
for
new
directions
and
paradigms.
Despite
this
awareness,
there
is
a
recognition,
as
one
authoritative
observer
put
it,
that
’Italian
political
science
has
accomplished
remarkable
steps’
(Von
Beyme,
1986:
97)
and
that the
road
travelled
in
the
last
20
to
30
years
has
been
’very
great
and
fruitful’
(Sartori,
1986:
108).
The
signs
of this
growth
and
the
grounds
for
such
qualified
optimism
are
many.
For
one
thing,
the
discipline
which,
in
the
1960s
and
early
1970s,
was
barely
present
in
academe,
had
few
positions
and
hardly
any
chair,
is
now
firmly
grounded
in
the
Italian
university
structure.
The
organization
of the
profession
has
been
put
on
firmer
ground
with
the
foundation
in
1981
of
the
Societa
italiana
di
scienza
politica,
a
much
more
professional
body
than
the
previous
association.’
Also,
the
scientific
output,
as
we
see
in
greater
detail
later
on,
has
grown
immensely
over
the
last
20
years,
both
in
quantity
and
quality.
Finally,
and
perhaps
most
significantly,
the
discipline
has
achieved
cultural
recognition,
and
there
is
a
distinct
feeling
that
the
contributions
of
its
practitioners
may
help
politicians
and
other
social
actors
in
their
efforts
to
cope
with
major
problems
in
state
and
society -
from
institutional
reform
to
labor
relations
and
other
problems
of
the
welfare
state.
42
This
optimism
must
be
tempered
by
the
observation
that
the
child
looks
so
healthy
mainly
because
it
is
so
young.
To
be
understood,
the
present
feeling
of
accomplishment
must
be
put
in
context
and
in
a
proper
historical
perspective.
We
need
to
explain
both
this
remarkable
growth
and
the
fact
that
it
happened
so
comparatively
late,
much
later
than,
say, in
Germany,
Britain
or
France,
not
to
mention
the
United
States.
Why
has
this
growth
come
about?
Which
barriers,
cultural
and
institutional,
had
to
be
overcome?
And
which
conditions
have
favored
the
discipline’s
coming
of
age?
These
are
some
of
the
questions
to
be
answered
in
any
reconstruction
of
the
development
of
political
science
as
a
learned
profession
in
Italy.
The
growth
of
Italian
political
science
can
best
be
seen,
I
believe,
as
the
result
of
the
interaction
of
four
factors
which
all
manifested
themselves
around
the
same
time,
the
late
1950s
and
the
1960s~.
The
first
factor
was
a
conscious
effort
by
a
few
authoritative
scholars
to
rescue
political
science
from
academic
oblivion
and
re-establish
it
as
a
distinct
field
of
study,
methodologically
and
substantively
autonomous
from
such
older
disciplines
as
public
law,
history
and
political
philosophy.
Prominent
among
these
scholars
were
Norberto
Bobbio,
Giovanni
Sartori
and
Bruno
Leoni.
The
second
factor
has
to
do
with
the
social
and
economic
development
of
Italian
society,
which
by
the
1960s
had
changed
beyond
recognition.
The
underlying
philosophy
of
positive
political
science
was
’scientific
realism’,
and
such
realism
was
seen
by
many
as
instrumental
in
bringing
about
reform
(Bobbio,
1969a:
10)
and
the
political
modernization
of
the
system
(Sartori,
1970:
24).
The
problem
was
to
bring
the
political
system
into
line
with
a
fast-moving
society.
The
third
factor
was
the
push
from
the
outside,
especially
the
impact
of
American
political
science
in
the
age
of
behavioralism.
Through
the
funding
of research
and
other
forms
of
institutional
cooperation,
American
institutions -
both
government
agencies
and
private
foundations -
played
a
decisive
role
in
introducing
new
methods
and
themes
of
investigation,
as
well
as
helping
a
weak
corporation
to
find
a
place
in
the
Italian
institutional
structure.
The
fourth
and
last
factor
has
to
do
with
changes
in
the
Italian
university
structure,
changes
which
allowed
for
the
development
of
the
Facolta
di
scienze
politiche
and
of
teaching
positions
in
political
science
within
such
departments.
The
Search
for
Autonomy
and
Purpose
Whoever
wanted
to
reintroduce
political
science
into
postwar
Italy
had
to
start
practically
from
scratch.
Mosca
and
Pareto,
the
founders
of
the
Italian
school
of
political
science,
had had
no
real
followers,3
and
paradoxically
their
work
was
to
become
influential
again
in
Italy
mainly
via
American
sociology
and
the
rediscovery
in
America
between
World
War
I
and
World
War
II
of
elite
theory.
The
Fascist
regime,
while
founding
a
number
of
new
Facolta
di
scienze
politiche
(Pavia,
Padua,
Perugia
and
Rome),
suppressed
the
teaching
of
political
science
in
the
only
department
in
which
it
existed,
the
Istituto
Cesare
Alfieri
in
Florence
(Spreafico,
1964:
205).
Nor
was
much
progress
made
in
the
first
decade
after
the
war.
It
is
no
wonder
then
that
when,
in
1960,
Bruno
Leoni
of
the
University
of
Pavia
commented
on
the
state
of
the
discipline
in
a
well-known
article -
which
is
also
a
very
perceptive
statement
of
what
a
science
of
politics
should
be
by
scope
and
method -
he
bitterly
concluded
that
’the
balance-sheet
of ...
[Italian]
political
science
over
the
last
forty
years
is
lamentable’
(Leoni,
1960:
41).
Of
course
there
were
many
’political
studies’
in
the
older
tradition.
The
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