Italian political science has lost one of its most influential founding fathers. Leonardo Morlino, an internationally respected academic, particularly in the field of comparative democracies, died at the age of 78. Alongside Giovanni Sartori, he helped launch the Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica (Italian Political Science Review) in 1971, becoming co-editor when Sartori moved to Stanford in 1977. Over time, the Journal has become a shared home for all Italian political scientists, as well as an international presence (today it is published in English by Cambridge University Press). Through his collaboration with Sartori, Morlino was directed to investigate the processes of transition from authoritarianism to democracy. Morlino developed a significant theory on democratic anchoring (Democracy Between Consolidation and Crisis, 1998; Changes for Democracy, 2011). His second major research area focused on the quality of democracy (Assessing the Quality of Democracy, 2005).