The paper aims
to
discuss the current
public image
of political science in a country
with
a
strong tradition in
political discourse
,
where
the empirical study of politics has been
present since the end of XIX century
if not longer
, when the Italian elitist school
paved
the way
for
a new
direction
political science
.
Over
the past two decades, political
scientists
have
had the chance to reverse their
scarse
visibility, and
have clearly
attempted to take advantage
of
the new demand
for
change
from
within Italian society,
by
trying to
achieve greater
visibility outside the ac
ademic community and to play a
stronger role in public debate.
What our analysis
reveals
is that, notwithstanding
the
institutionalization of the
subject with
in university curricula
,
and
the
relative
ly
promising level of internationalisation
of
research, t
he \u201cpolitical\u201d and \u201csocial\u201d role
s
of
Italian political
s
cience
continue to be of a substantially limited entit
