With the sudden speeding up of events, political change in Italy appears to be far-reaching. It is also true that political change has been replicated, and in part anticipated, by changes to the country's social and economic fabric. A knowledge of these changes is needed to prevent the political debate from being reduced to a present that has no historical perspective and from focusing on short-lived opinion polls. In order to provide a uniform interpretation of these two aspects, Bagnasco's book looks at ongoing changes to the country's social and economic structure, and compares them at every step with the most relevant demands, movements and ideas of this political phase.