Prof. Roberto D’Alimonte is Full Professor of Political Science at the Department of Political Science at the University of Florence, where he leads courses about the Italian political system, elections and political partieis. Since 1993 he leads a a research group interested in elections and evolution of the Italian political system whose findings have been published in several volumes by Il Mulino. He is also Director of the Centro Italiano di Studi Elettorali (Italian Centre for Electoral Studies) and commentator for Il Sole 24 Ore, Italy’s leading financial newspaper. He also teaches European Integration at the Florence Campus of New York University and has been visiting professor at Yale and Stanford University. He is a regular speaker about EU institutions at the Graduate School at Stanford University and has consulted for Fondazione Olivetti and the OECD.