Conference report: Joint panels of the ‘Italian Politics Specialist Group’ with the ‘French Politics and Policy Specialist Group’ and panels of the ‘Italian Politics Specialist Group’ at the 53rd Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association (‘Democracy and Diversity’), 15–17 April 2003, University of Leicester

The ‘Italian Politics Group’ of the Political Studies Association (PSA) convened for the second time at the organization's annual conference, held this year at the University of Leicester. Co-ordinated by Felia Allum (Bath) and Jim Newell (Salford), the group provides a forum for debating Italian politics and generating collaborative publications among scholars largely, but not exclusively, based in the United Kingdom. This year, apart from its own panels, the group organized joint discussions on ‘decentralization’ and ‘presidentialism’ with the PSA's specialists in French politics.