Leonardo Morlino is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Research Center on Democracies and Democratizations at LUISS, Rome. He was President of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) (2009-12). He is the author of more than 30 books and more than 200 journal essays and book chapters published in English, French, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Chinese, Mongolian, and Japanese. His most recent books include: The Impact of Economic Crisis on South European Democracies (Palgrave, 2017), The quality of Democracy in Latina America (IDEA, 2016), Changes for Democracy (Oxford UP, 2011), Democracias y Democratizaciones (CIS, 2008); Democratization and the European Union: Comparing Central and Eastern European Post-Communist Countries (Routledge 2010, with W. Sadurski), International Actors, Democratization and the Rule of Law: Anchoring Democracy? (Routledge 2008, with A. Magen). He was also one of the three editors of the International Encyclopedia of Political Science (8 voll., Sage Publications, 2011), that won the Honorable Mention of Dartmouth Medal for reference publishing in all domains of knowledge. Morlino is a leading specialist in comparative politics with expertise on Southern and Eastern Europe, with a focus on phenomenon of democratization. Now he is directing a new research on the transformations of freedom and equality in the six European large democracies.