What is the future of a country in which a regional councilor in Abruzzo earns more than the governor of California? In which the Quirinale costs the quadruple that Buckingham Palace, the president of the Parliament does diving in forbidden waters, and the prime minister goes to his favorite spa in a Civil Protection helicopter? Phenomenon of sales in Italy (30 editions since 2008), La Casta is a sarcastic and frank photograph of the Italian political-institutional situation, of the evils of an immovable and transforming «aristocracy». Through its pages we confirm our worst suspicions: the high and unjustified cost of politicians, the innumerable cases of corruption, nepotism, patronage, abuse of power, waste and abusive financing of the parties. The ruling class has been transformed into a class of untouchables, people eager to usufruct of state privileges and increase them continuously. But La Casta also warns about the dangers of collective bad humor: in the midst of a crisis of credibility in national politics, anti-political sentiment is dominant, populist saviors emerge and foreign newspapers are barely interested in more media figures, such as Beppe Grillo.