The Department of Political Science at the University of Perugia was included among the 180 Departments of Excellence in Italy for the 2018–2022 five-year period. The selection was conducted at the national level based on the Department’s achievements in scientific research and a five-year development project called LEPA, which stands for “Legality and Participation.”
The LEPA
Research Center At the heart of the project submitted by the Department—which was ultimately selected—was the “Legality and Participation” (LEPA) Research and Advanced Training Center.
LEPA would subsequently carry out its activities within five research areas:
- institutional quality, public ethics, and anti-corruption policies;
- participatory and deliberative democracy;
- legality and participatory integration among cultures;
- legality, social rights, and welfare policies in the European context;
- legality and participation in democratization processes (with particular reference to the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe).
The Fundamental Objectives of the LEPA
Center Upon its establishment within the Department of Political Science at the University of Perugia, the LEPA Center was tasked with two sets of objectives:
- to initiate studies and projects capable of providing tools to help manage social and political transformations, using the concept of the rule of law as a means of managing complexity while simultaneously developing defenses against the infiltration of critical factors, such as the delegitimization of institutions, the growth of inequalities, and corruption within public administrations;
- to position itself as an organizational hub and scientific reference point for large-scale projects within the framework of European funding, beginning with the upcoming calls under the “Governance for the Future” program; as well as the calls for “Migration,” “Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation in the Context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution,” “Security.”
By Rector’s Decree No. 3433/2022, the Operating Regulations were approved, thereby establishing the LEPA Center as an autonomous university research center.