In the last few decades the political situation in Italy has gone through deep changes. As far as younger generations are concerned, if during the 80’s Italian studies (Cavalli et al.) registered a drop in youth attention towards politics and a renewed evaluation of the private sphere, in the 90’s and the first years of the new Millennium what seems to be a deep process of changes has started to take place. The paper will analyze political attitudes and values both of young active and elected politicians and of young people who have not chosen politics as an important part of their lives. The first results show us that the national political bribe scandal (Tangentopoli) in the early ‘90’s, the Berlin wall crack, and the new International and Italian political asset have had a deep impact on both groups and on both political sides. Institutional politics and parties seem distant and little trustworthy to both groups, incapable of resolving fundamental problems. Ideology, political theories and values seem unclear. Politics’ capacity to give society a broader horizon and project seems to be replaced by expectations on it’s management efficiency and transparency, while in general, traditional politics doesn’t seem appealing and accessible enough for the younger generations. Traditional parties feel the need for a change too. Not only they have started to call their supporters to (at least occasional) forms of renewed participation and claim to have turned their style of govern towards more participatory forms but, and may be more importantly, they have started to select a younger generation of candidates who matured an experience in political participation outside the traditional political parties. Nevertheless, the outcome of these choices is an enhancement in political complexity, not necessarily in democracy
