If politics as a practical activity often manifests itself through deception, distortion, propaganda, and manipulation, the scientific study of politics attempts to highlight the existence of conditions, obstacles, costs, benefits, constraints, and opportunities. Having developed historically thanks to this crucial distinction, political science today enjoys a long tradition that has crossed many phases: development of outlooks, approaches, and paradigms that have helped consolidate cumulated knowledge about political phenomena; creation of methods and techniques for analysing power, conflict, regimes, institutions, identities, and political behaviour; increasing interest for decision-making processes and public policy formation. The evolution of political science is clearly described in this profile that introduces the reader to a field of knowledge that cannot fail to captivate if it's true, as Aristotle said, that man is a political animal.

Giorgio Sola teaches Political Science at the University of Genoa and has studied in particular Michels, Pareto, and Mosca, of whose work he has edited critical editions.