The aim of this paper is to address the Cartel Party thesis’ key points by using the data collected by the Political Parties Database Project (PPDB). Starting from the Katz and Mair claim of the parties’ shift from society to the state, the analysis focuses firstly on the growing financial dependence of parties on public funding, as one of the strongest factor contributing to boost parties’ tie with the state. By using both PPDB and longitudinal data, the paper builds an index of financial concentration which will be used as an independent variable. We first test, whether state financial dependence is related to decreasing party membership levels. Secondly, the paper analyzes whether and how the reliance of parties on a dominant/single or on different donors and resources (public and private) affects feelings of party responsiveness by citizens.
