Filippo Sabetti is a professor emeritus of political science at McGill University and the author of several books, including The Search for Good Government: Understanding the Paradox of Italian Democracy. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at the Ostrom Workshop at Indiana University.  

He holds a bachelor's degree (summa cum laude) in History and Politics from McMaster University (1968), Woodrow Wilson Fellow (1969), a M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University (1970 and 1977).

Fascinated by the ways people come together to govern public affairs and environmental resources, Filippo Sabetti has spent much of his professional life, spanning 50 years, investigating how and why people come together to engage in collective action. 

Inspired by Ostromian institutional analysis, the starting point of his research program began by seeking answers to the question of what happens when people are prevented from cooperating. 

His work highlights the relationship between modus vivendi, polycentricity and liberalism, particularly in Western Europe and in Canada. He is particularly fond of his 1984 essay titled "The Historical Context of Constitutional Change in Canada", first published in Davenport and Leach and reprinted in other publications, that remains timely as ever. In recent years, his research has focused on struggles for self-rule (the topic of his most recent book) in a historical and comparative perspective.