Stefano Bartolini  is Peter Mair Chair in Comparative Politics at the European University Institute from 2006 to 2013 he was Director of the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies. He has been associate professor at the University of Florence (1985), full professor at the University of Trieste (1990), the University of Geneva (1991), the European University Institute (1994) and the University of Bologna (2004). He is a member of the editorial board of the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica, and a member of the scientific board of West European Politics, Swiss Review of Political Science, Acta Politica, Electoral Studies, Journal of Theoretical Politics, and Comparative Political Studies. He has been awarded the best book prize of the European Politics section of the APSA (2002), the Gregory Luebbert APSA Prize in Comparative Politics (2001), and the UNESCO Stein Rokkan prize for the Social Sciences (1990). His present academic interests are the relationships between the process of European integration and the key features of the European nation-state experience.