Michelangelo Vercesi is Associate Professor of Political Science at the Department of Social Sciences of the University of Naples Federico II, Affiliate Member of the Center for the Study of Democracy (ZDEMO) of the Leuphana University Lüneburg, and Affiliate of thePortuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI) of the NOVA University Lisbon. He is board member of the Research Committee on Political Elites of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and Co-Editor the European Journal of Political Research Political Data Yearbook. Michelangelo Vercesi holds the German Habilitation as Professor in Political Science and the Italian National Scientific Qualification as Associate Professor in Political Science. After obtaining a PhD in Political Science from the University of Pavia, he was Adjunct Professor (Professore a contratto) in 'Italian Political System' at the University of Milan; he collaborated with EuVisions - an observatory and data collection project on the social dimension of European integration -; he was Research Associate and Adjunct Lecturer (Privatdozent) at the Center for the Study of Democracy of the Leuphana University Lüneburg; he was Adjunct Professor in 'Government and Politics in Germany and Europe' for USAC (University Studies Abroad Consortium, University of Nevada) in Germany; and Researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations of the NOVA University Lisbon. He held visiting positions in the UK, Germany, Argentina, and Austria. His research focuses on comparative government, political elites and leadership, political parties, and parliaments. He is member of the International Political Science Association (IPSA) and Italian Political Science Association (SISP) as well as of several standing and specialist groups for the study of political leadership, political parties and institutions, political sociology and elites, and Italian Politics.
[I]t is not his possession of knowledge, of irrefutable truth, that makes the man of science, but his persistent and recklessly critical quest for truth. (K.R. Popper, 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery', [1959] 2005, p. 281, emphasis in original)