The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the basic principles of the Italian state system from the period of unification  process in the second half of the nineteenth century to modern times, with particular emphasis on the governments of Benito Mussolini and Silvio Berlusconi. The socio-economic, legal and political conditions of Italian fascism, the period after World War II, and Berlusconi's rule after 1993 will be presented.