This paper investigates whether it is possible to construct new party models after the implicit, but in our view effective, deconstruction of the established ones that has resulted from the academic debate of the last decade or so. Our aim is to develop what we could call composite party models, capable of replacing, albeit at a higher degree of complexity, the existing ones. We have identified a number of organizational components whose relevance can be assessed empirically with data provided by the Party Database Project. We are interested in verifying to what extent and in what direction (if any) party organizations are developing in contemporary liberal-democracies: the end product of this reflection might well be the dismissal of the very notion of party model and ideal type structures, as the current debate appears to be at least partially questioning the usefulness of these concepts.
