This work is a methodological development running

in parallel with the analysis of the Italian

standing "imbalance", as it was investigated in

"The Uneven Political Development". As is written

in the Introduction, this book collects

Cervetto's reflections on the materialist conception

of politics in 1977-81 and 1984-89. It is the

theoretical side of a strategic issue.

It was necessary to underline the dialectical character

in the structure/superstructure relationship

through a sharp criticism of both mechanism -

which reduces political analysis to econometric

evaluations - and the idea of the primacy of politics

- which takes no account of the actual economic

determination.

The connection with the sound foundations of

Marx and Engels's thought is shown in illuminating

and less-known passages quoted from their

works, as well as from Lenin's. This is the basis

whereupon a comparison with Eduard Bernstein's

liberal àrguments, Heinrich Cunow's revisionist

ideas, Lev Trotsky's tacticalism between the two

world wars, Hans Kelsen's normative approach,

and Pëtr Struve's objectivism can be drawn effectively.

The investigation into the actual characters of

democracy in the imperialist epoch marks this

book throughout and accounts for its extreme up-to-dateness

in a critical stage of the best possible

"political shell" for capitalism.