The Department of Political Sciences of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart is more than thirty years old. It comprises full professors, tenured researchers, adjunct professors, lecturers and a significant number of collaborators (Research Fellows, Post-doctoral Fellows, PhD students, and assistants.), who conduct their research activities within the Department.

The Department is one of the two scientific structures of the PhD School in Institutions and Politics. Moreover, the Center of Research on the Southern System and the Wider Mediterranean (CRiSSMA), established in 1999, “collaborates - in particular - with the Faculty of Political Sciences [now Faculty of Political and Social Sciences] and with the Department of Political Sciences”.

The members of the Department belong to different scientific-disciplinary areas (law, political science, history), which are oriented towards the study of political phenomena in their institutional and organizational expressions at an international and national level. The founder of our University, Father Agostino Gemelli, affirmed in 1942 that law, history and politics constitute “a tripod” on which the Faculties of Political Science are founded. About twenty years later, Francesco Vito, successor of the founder in the Rectorate and previously Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences, affirmed: “We remain faithful to the scientific tradition, the investigation of the political phenomenon cannot be exhausted without residues from a single scientific discipline. Historical, philosophical, legal and socio-economic studies contribute to the understanding of politics”. According to Gianfranco Miglio, Dean of the Faculty of Political Sciences of the University for thirty years, history is the privileged laboratory of any political research.

The Professors and Researchers of the Department of Political Sciences are therefore deeply rooted in their respective disciplines, but they believe that their methodological rigor, their specific competence, their ability to understand the phenomena they are studying are enriched by the multi- and interdisciplinary comparison favored by the scientific structure to which they belong. The journal Quaderni di Scienze Politiche reflects the essential scientific value of the Department of Political Sciences.

Come immagine caratterizzante dell’identità del Dipartimento, le cui aree scientifiche hanno tutte una forte dimensione internazionalistica, è stata scelta la mappa disegnata nel 1507 dal cartografo tedesco Martin Waldseemüller (1470-1521), di grande importanza storica essendo la prima nella quale il Nuovo Continente scoperto da Cristoforo Colombo è denominato “America”. Nel 2005 tale mappa è stata dichiarata dall’UNESCO “Memoria del mondo”.

La frase «Orbem prudenter investigare et veraciter agnoscere», che esprime lo spirito di libera ricerca nella fedeltà alla vocazione cattolica, utilizza alcune espressioni della seguente preghiera di S. Tommaso d’Aquino: «Concede mihi, misericors Deus, quae tibi placita sunt, ardenter concupiscere, prudenter investigare, veraciter agnoscere, et perfecte adimplere ad laudem et gloriam nominis tui. Amen». Tale preghiera, «dicenda ante studium vel lectionem», a sua volta forma la prima parte di una più lunga orazione «Ad vitam sapienter instituendam».

The Department of Political Science is promoting:

–   Il coordinamento fra Docenti e Ricercatori per un efficace svolgimento della ricerca negli ambiti disciplinari di competenza.

–   Lo sviluppo della ricerca scientifica in ambito storico, politico, giuridico-internazionale e un attivo dialogo tra gli studiosi delle varie discipline.

–   L’organizzazione di convegni, seminari e conferenze, attraverso i quali realizzare un proficuo confronto fra studiosi, l’avanzamento e la diffusione delle conoscenze nel campo delle scienze politiche.

–   La realizzazione di pubblicazioni scientifiche, che raccolgano i risultati delle ricerche promosse e i contributi dei membri del Dipartimento e degli studiosi partecipanti alle attività seminariali e di ricerca organizzate dal Dipartimento stesso.

Precisely the relevant and qualified activity promoted by the Department has led to the publication (in print and on the Internet) of the present Notebooks, to host acts and texts resulting from the initiatives promoted by the Department, as well as essays and articles by its Teachers and Researchers, their collaborators at all levels and external authors.

The relevant and qualified activity promoted by the Department has led to the publication (on paper and on the Internet) of the present Quaderni, to host acts and texts resulting from the initiatives promoted by the Department, as well as essays and articles by its Professors and Researchers, their collaborators at all levels and external authors.

The publication of articles is subject to double blind peer review.

The journal is registered at Tribunale of Milan, no. 355, June 27th, 2011.