"Political Lexicon" is a series edited by Carlo Galli, in which eleven volumes have already been published: Constitution, Representation, Freedom, State, Democracy, Interest, Revolution, Tolerance, Authority, and Government. The series' aim is to comprise an essential encyclopaedia that describes the historical evolution of the main concepts on which modern political discourse is based. The concept of community is currently enjoying particular favour in the political and social sciences, in that the challenges of globalisation and the crisis of the nation-state have underlined the role of community bonds in people's need for identity. Faithful to the series' spirit, the author outlines the history of the concept of political community, interpreted in Western thought as a community of free and equal individuals, starting from the Greek polis and the Roman res publica, through medieval theological, political and legal thought, the advent of the modern state, up to the need for community increasingly expressed by globalised society.

Francesco Fistetti teaches History of Philosophical Thought at the University of Bari.