A Discreet Star? Remarks on Giovanni Sartori’s Lack of Visibility in France

Abstract

Whereas Giovanni Sartori was a founding father of Italian political science and a figure of international stature in the English-speaking world, he did not, however, enjoy comparable visibility within French political science. On the occasion of a special journal issue devoted to him, the article offers an analysis of the reasons that ren- der this situation intelligible. These include, in the postwar period, cultural factors; considerations relating to the differing pace at which the discipline became institutionalised in France and in Italy; and the specific orienta- tions adopted by Sartori, who, by privileging te influence of American scholarship, rejecting proximity with sociology, and producing a body of work marked by his liberal-conservative political preferences, pursued a path opposed to that which would gradually come to characterise the dominant orientation of French political science. The article concludes with brief remarks on the difficulties that the forthcoming translation of a major text by Sartori on comparative politics may, or may not, present.