The early national elections of April 13th-14th 2008 will be regarded as most significant in the history of the Italian Republic. Their relevance is directly proportional to the unexpected outcome of the vote on the political system: that is, firstly the dramatic reduction of a party system system as fragmented as apparently irreducible, and secondly the defeat of the radical Left, whose representation in Parliament got cancelled out.The Quaderni di Sociologia have invited four experts (sociologists and political scientists) to contribute specific writings to an imaginary round-table conference, where reasonably concise and straightforward response would join the rigour and accurate reflection that characterizes scientific analysis.Four issues relating to the election results have thus been debated: 1) the relation between the working-class electorate and the vote to the Lega, 2) the Partito Democratico’s capability to appeal to the centre electorate at large, 3) the defeat of the radical Left (Rifondazione Comunista, Partito dei Comunisti Italiani, Verdi), 4) the influence of the anti-politics on the electoral participation and voting trends.As the readers will see, the four experts – Mauro Calise, Marcello Fedele, Alfio Mastropaolo, Paolo Natale – have tackled these problems in an ideologically sober as well as inspiring manner, and what is most important, making an original contribution to the debate. This means that not only do the data, explanations and comments help to stimulate discussion, but they also serve to correct, elaborate and reformulate the original questions, and to raise new issues, so as to challenge received representations and urge an extensive investigation of the matter.