Abstract

In this roundtable, three scholars discuss the role of the political party in Italian history, from the unification to the republican era. The different approaches of the political historian (Paolo Pombeni), the political scientist (Piero Ignazi) and the historian of law (Pietro Costa) offer an open and unconventional framework for discussion. Although the book deals primarily with the Italian case, the roundtable sheds also light on the transformations of the party model in XX century European liberal democracies. Therefore, it offers a useful contribution to examine the recent changes of the party model, increasingly delegitimized today by European public opinions, but at the same time still decisive within the main elective bodies both at the national and the EU level.