Conceptualizing Politics

How to use this textbook
Beyond the philosophical reflections that are the main content of this book, the 
hints at world history and world politics, the stuff from which my political philoso-
phy is drawn, require enough space in and of themselves so that any additional con-
tent would overburden the volume and make it thicker in pages than I wanted. This 
is why the reader will not find here what can be easily retrieved on the Internet, 
from the description of events (such as battles, peace treaties, revolutions and par-
liamentary votes) to the biographies of notable protagonists (only the year of birth 
and death is indicated for a preliminary orientation; living persons’ names carry no 

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xiv Preface
such indication). This notwithstanding, to put some flesh around conceptual defini-
tions, I have sometimes cited historical or economic or sociological facts that may 
not be immediately present to the mind of non-European readers.
The References at the end of each chapter contain the sources of the texts 
quoted in that chapter, which are kept at a minimum. Additionally, each chapter, as 
well this introductory note, is complemented with the indication of Further read-
ings, in case the reader wants to learn more about certain topics. For ease of access, 
whenever possible, the e-version of books and articles is cited instead of the hard 
copy. Wherever it is important to know the year of composition or first publication 
of a book, this year is quoted, while the publication year of the edition actually used 
comes at the end of the entry.
Titles are quoted in their original language, followed by the English translation 
(italicised if corresponding to a published edition). Only on two or three occasions 
was it necessary to refer to a work lacking an English translation. I have introduced 
concepts based on ancient Greek and Latin using these languages, as well as in spo-
radic cases Arabic, Chinese and Russian words.
There is, in my view, a twin rationale for doing so. First, the triumph of English 
as lingua franca, a blessing for international understanding and scientific communica-
tion, should not lead to erasing the use of all other languages. It is as curious as it 
is lamentable that the love for diversity, celebrated with some pomp everywhere in 
Western societies, must stop at the language barrier, beyond which all is homog-
enised in English as if Babel had never existed or were still a divine punishment 
to be finally remedied. The other reason is that giving up all linguistic multiplicity 
and all erudition with the alleged aim of making a book or a discipline accessible 
to everybody makes them intellectually poorer, while a less standardised linguistic 
sensitivity remains open only to students of the very best and exclusive universities 
around the world. In some measure, it would amount to a hidden contribution to 
even more inequality.
In any case, the tiny opening made to linguistic diversity in this book is a signal and 
an offer to those who accept this stimulation, and an act of respect towards readers 
of mother tongues other than English. But do not make any mistake: the book can 
be fully read and completely understood in English only.
Conventional wisdom holds that political philosophy, as a purely conceptual 
exercise, is foreign to visual elements. In the case of a textbook, this is not necessarily 
true, but my wish to use images to complement the conceptual communication of 
the book’s contents has been to a large extent frustrated by complicated copyright 
concerns. The reader will thus find only a few illustrations printed in this volume; for 
the remaining chapters I have sometimes indicated web links leading to the images 
I intended to show. The reader will choose whether or not to make use of them.
* * *
My MOOC (massive open online course) Political Philosophy: An Introduction, 
recorded in the Palagio di Parte Guelfa in Florence in 2013–14, is still available 

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Preface  xv
(2016) on the platform, Berlin. It follows to a good extent the same 
road map as this textbook, but does not overlap with it.
Inspiration for this approach to political philosophy, which has been influencing 
my teaching for the past twenty-five years, came originally from the articles written 
in the 1970s by Norberto Bobbio for the Enciclopedia Einaudi and later translated by 
Peter Kennealy into English. In 1989, they were published by Polity Press, Oxford 
under the infelicitous, then fashionable title Democracy and Dictatorship: The Nature 
and Limits of State Power; in it the subtitle is the true title, better corresponding to 
the original Stato, governo, società. I still recommend this book as a whole and will 
quote from it (Bobbio 1989) in the Further Readings.