Toward a New Political Science in Italy and West Germany After 1945: Democracy, Politics and Generational Change

This chapter illustrates the relevance of the generational issue for understanding the history of West German and Italian political sciences after 1945. For the Italian case study, D’Ottavio’s analysis points to the connection between the active role played by some scholars in the Resistenza and the adoption, after 1945, of a positivistic approach to the study of politics. As far as Germany is concerned, the focus is on the very specific generation of the so-called “re-migrants.” By considering the common and distinctive features that marked the development and institutionalization of the discipline in West Germany and Italy, respectively, after 1945, the article finally discusses the different ways the supposed “Americanization” or “Westernization” took place in the field of political sciences.