This textbook, from one of Italy's most eminent scholars, provides broad coverage and critique of Italian politics and society. Providing the readers with the knowledge necessary to understand the working of the Italian political system, it also offers answers to some of the most important challenges facing the country - and other contemporary democracies - today, such as populism, anti-politics and corruption. Critical but underpinned by thorough data and analysis, it presents alternative views alongside the author's interpretation. Crucially, the book uses a comparative framework to explain Italy's transformation and evaluate its performance. Comparing the rules, institutions, parties and actors at work in the most important European political systems - France, Germany, Great Britain - with those in Italy, the Italian context is better understood and assessed in contrast.This text will be essential reading for students and scholars of Italian politics and European politics, and more broadly for comparative politics and democracy.