There is strong bond between two of the most controversial issues in social science. The first concerns the relationship between social determinism and personal free will, i.e., between individual heteronomy and autonomy. The second relates to the ways in which the aggregation of individual deeds generates macro-events. In his new book, Angelo Panebianco offers readers a detailed set of tools for exploring the transformation of "micro" situations into "macro" phenomena. His work is based on the belief that a better understanding of these processes can improve social and political theory's capacity to explain permanence and change in society.

Angelo Panebianco teaches International Relations at the University of Bologna and Political Theory at the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan.