An Italian political scientist graduated in Political Sciences from the University of Bologna, Piero Ignazi finalised his studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. Throughout his academic career he was chairman of the three-year university course on international relationships and the director of the Master in international relationships (2000-03) at the University of Bologna. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Political Science Review (2004-10) and was the manager of Il Mulino between 2009 and 2011. He teaches compared politics at the University of Bologna and collaborates with prestigious Italian newspapers such as La Repubblica and L’Espresso. His publications include: “Partiti politici in Italia” (Il Mulino 2008), “La fattoria degli italiani” (Rizzoli 2009), “Forza senza legittimità: il vicolo cieco dei partiti” (Laterza 2012 and 2013), “Il triangolo rotto: Partiti, società e Stato” (Laterza 2013, co-author Fabrizio Barca), “Vent’anni dopo” (Il Mulino 2014).