Un’impresa (purtroppo) incompiuta. Giovanni Sartori e lo studio delle organizzazioni di partito

Giovanni Sartori's theory of parties and party systems represents a milestone in the literature on political representation. While Sartori investigated in-depth the dynamics of the parties-party systems' relationships, he did not leave us an equally accomplished contribution on the subject of party organization. Build￾ing on the few hints put forward by Sartori, the aim of this contribution is to critically reconstruct his theoretical and analytical approach to this topic. As the article shows, while some of his assumptions are inevitably outdated, most of Sartori's intuitions for the study of party organization can still provide valu￾able insights for scholars.