This book explores the writings of Norberto Bobbio (1909-2004) who was Italy's foremost political, legal, and democratic theorist, a distinguished historian of political and legal ideas, and one of the country's most perceptive public intellectuals throughout the second half of the twentieth century.

David Ragazzoni is Lecturer in Political Science at Columbia University, New York. His research interests sit at the crossroads of democratic theory (historical and contemporary) and the history of political and legal ideas. His articles have been published in Ethics and International Affairs, Constellations. International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, Journal of Political Ideologies and Journal of Modern Italian Studies. His volume Hans Kelsen on Constitutional Democracy: Genesis, Theory, Legacies (coedited with Sandrine Baume) is forthcoming.

Aurelian Craiutu is Professor of Political Science at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author and editor of several books on modern political thought, among them, Faces of Moderation (2017) and Why Not Moderation? Letters to Young Radicals (2023).

Introduction-Norberto Bobbio: a life for democracy on the battlefield of ideologies 1. The genesis of Bobbio's liberalism (1939-1955): between classics old and new 2. Equality, liberty, justice: Bobbio's democratic vision, between liberalism and socialism 3. Two teachers of intellectual hygiene: Norberto Bobbio and Raymond Aron on the role of the intellectuals in modern society 4. Norberto Bobbio's political philosophy, between theory and ideology 5. From Dusk till Dawn: Bobbio on the left/right dichotomy 6. 'The ideological tree is always green': Norberto Bobbio and the future of ideology studies