THE OTHER SIDE OF THE MOON. Political Private Donations in Italy in the Last 30 years: the financial appeal of parties between structural changes and personalisation dynamics

Despite the dramatic evidence of their decline (in terms of membership, trust, and ideological perspective), political parties still represent the most important collective actor in a democratic political system. Their role in representing pluralism and their electoral centrality is not undermined, even if strongly questioned. As organization, parties have to face areas of uncertainty that request suitable answers and efficient organizational choices. Taking the challenge as representative actors, in this work I focused on the capacity of parties to mobilize resources: financial resources in particular. Through the analysis of private financial donations to political parties in Italy –in determinant election years as 1987, 1994, and 2013- I tried to assess their connective capability with specific interests representatives in order to provide evidence of their changing representational role. In addition, personalisation dynamics that involve the electoral and political processes should be evident in financing connections, leading external donors to be progressively more attracted by single candidates than by party's central organization. The project first aim was to update the knowledge on political private financing of Italian political parties and describe the challenges parties are going to face in the next future.