The Faculty and its Development
- The Faculty of Political Science of the Università Cattolica has always
held firmly to two academic and didactic principles: to combine tradition
and innovation; to combine a scholarly and cultural education with scholarly
and professional training.
These orientations proved crucial in coping with the university reform, introduced
in the academic year 2001-2002, since it was intended that our Faculty of
Political Sciences in its various degree courses should preserve the doctrinal
and interdisciplinary foundations on which it bases specialist skills.
- On these foundations three criteria remain unaltered in presenting the Faculty
and its degree programmes to students.
First of all, it is an established academic tradition to illustrate to students
the basic outlines of the history of the Faculty itself.
Secondly, it is right to inform students of the present identity of a Faculty
that brings together the various disciplines in a unified design.
Thirdly, it is incumbent to describe the professional openings that arise
out of the academic curriculum and the quality of the teaching staff, as well
as the quality of the students and the credit acquired in time by the Faculty
and the university.
Reflection on these points is backed up by a conviction: a university faculty
of limited dimensions like ours is an academic community to which all - students
and faculty members - contribute within the boundaries of their respective
roles.
On the past and present identity of our Faculty of Political Science (the
reader is referred to the presentation in "Cathedra Magistralis et laureae
honoris causa", where how the Faculty took shape in its 80 years of history
is recounted), we recall here that the plan of the Faculty - which, although
not then embodied in law, effectively began in 1921-22 with the foundation
of this university - brought with it a powerful ideal and ethical content
often evoked in the addresses of the university's founder, Agostino Gemelli,
who saw the university as seeking to educate "young people trained in
the study of the economic, political and social disciplines"(1926), so
enabling them to tackle the great problems of Italian society.
In the following years great progress was made in method, disciplines and
relations between scholarship, culture and professionalism.
These were the cornerstones on which the Faculty rested: not on the separate
disciplines or their segmentation but on a unified design that was to be understood
and respected in the years ahead in a line of continuity and renewal.
- The Università Cattolica's Faculty of Political Science is based
on the three supporting principles: subsidiarity, interdependence and solidarity
both for its first-level and second-level degree programmes.
The fulfilment of these three principles also makes clear that each degree
programme is not a sectorial discipline but is related to "political
action" in its broadest sense.
For this reason all the degree programmes, with their different approaches,
deal with the role of Institutions and Organizations, their interconnections and both European and international profiles.
- The Faculty runs two first-level degree programmes.
The degree course in Political Science and International Relations (Class
15) is divided into two tracks: one in Institutions and International Relations,
which emphasises the importance of vertical subsidiarity between levels in
institutions and between levels of government, and of horizontal subsidiarity
between public and private bodies and between organizations; and the degree
course in Co-operation, Development and Peace emphasises the importance of
the principle of solidarity as a basis for planning development, security
and peace, through the involvement of institutions and organizations.
The degree course in Communication Sciences (Class 14) emphasises the importance of
the principle of interdependence between non-hierarchized people communicating
in a network system involving others working in public and private organisations
on a local, national and global scale. The aim of this programme is above
all to train professionals for communication in Institutions and Organisations, which firmly places this degree course within the Faculty of Political Science. .
- The Faculty also runs two second-level degree programmes.
The second-level degree programme in International Relations and European
Integration (Class 60/S) has the aim of developing professionals able to operate
in Italy, in Europe and in a broader international setting with expertise
in politics, economics and law founded on a clear historical understanding
of situations. This will be emphasised when dealing with developing countries.
The second-level degree programme in Public and International Communication Sciences (Class 67/S) has the aim of developing professional expertise which through
communication can improve efficiency and success of Institutions and Organisations, as well
as promoting innovation both in society and in the way knowledge is used,
which is also one of the main strategies of the European Union. The internationalisation phenomenon has strong connections with communication and this also links this degree course to our Faculty of Science with its particular characteristics.
- The design of the academic programme has taken account of the highly dynamic
state of professions and the labour market, where new professions call for
a general training based on solid historical, political, legal, social and
economic foundations that will make it possible to understand, control and
govern the complex phenomena of globalisation and internationalisation which
have various effects locally and nationally, particularly in an increasingly
European Italy.
- A graduate in Political Science from the Università Cattolica emerges
from what quality-efficiency indicators show to be one of the finest in Italy:
one that maintains close European and international ties, helped by Socrates
and Erasmus projects, and that enjoys constructive links with the professional
world in Italy and abroad, in part maintained by seminars and conferences.
All this together with a selection procedure that ensures that quality and
efficiency are kept at the highest level.
- The Faculty of Political Science intends to further its policy of stipulating
conventions with academic and extra-academic institutions and organisations to facilitate
the entry of our graduates into the job market and professions, as well as
retaining its orientation towards international and European issues embodied
since 1989 in the institution of the "Cathedra Magistralis" (associated
in some cases with the presentation of honorary degrees and in others of international
awards). In this chair various eminent institutional figures have followed
each other: Jacques Delors (President of the Commission European Community
1985-1994), Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (Secretary General of the
United Nations 1982-1991), Corazon C. Aquino (President of the Republic of
the Philippines 1986-1992), Shimon Peres (Nobel Prize-Winner, former Prime
Minister of the State of Israel), Michel Camdessus (Chairman and Managing
Director of the International Monetary Fund 1987-2000), Helmut Kohl (Chancellor of the German Federal Republic 1982-1998), Romano Prodi (President of the European Union Commission 1999 -2004); Josè Maria Aznar (President of the European Council first term 2002 and the Spanish government 1996 - 2004), Flavio Cotti, President
of the Swiss Confederation ("Premio internazionale Francesco Vito")
and Giuseppe Pittau S.J., Archbishop Secretary of the Congregation for Catholic
Education ("Premio Internazionale Matteo Ricci"), Prof. Mons. Marcelo
Sánchez Sorondo, Chancellor of the Pontificie Accademie delle Scienze
("Premio internazionale Francesco Vito").
The "Cathedra Magistralis", recently published and edited by this Faculty in summary format, attests with particular symbolic force to the awareness of international and global issues that is the heritage of this Faculty of the Catholic University.
Alberto Quadrio Curzio
Dean of the Faculty of Political Science
Faculty members
