DR. DANIELE CARAMANI works at the Mannheim Centre for Social Research (MZES), a body affiliated to the University of Mannheim. The institute is one of the leading social science bodies in the world, and has its own data archive EURODATA, which is widely considered as unparalleled. He received his degree and masters from the University of Geneva and his PhD from the European University Institute of Florence. His most recent publications include (with Stefano Bartolini and Simon Hug) Parties and Party Systems, A bibliographic guide to the literature on parties and party systems in Europe since 1945 on CD-ROM', London. He is currently Professor in the Faculty of Political Science at the University of Florence and Urbino.