Political Party Funding and Private Donations in Italy

Chiara Fiorelli is a Research Fellow in Political Science and Adjunct Professor for the course Political Parties, Leadership and Democratic Processes at the Department of Political Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome. Her research interests include party politics, political organizations, and the relationship between political actors and interest groups.

“It takes a much greater effort to establish some basic numbers than in other areas of political science. Theoretically, political finance has often been isolated from the centre of political science and, indeed, from the centre of any other discipline. Chiara Fiorelli’s excellent book overcomes these challenges to provide us with a slew of basic data that contribute to one of the defining debates of European political science. … This is a vital book for political finance and party organization scholars.” (Iain McMenamin, Italian Political Science Review, February 7, 2022)

• Chapter 1: Introduction: The informative power of private political financing.- Chapter 2: Challenges and Perspectives in the Study of Political Financing.- Chapter 3: Private Political Financing: Between Regulations and In-depth Research.- Chapter 4: The Connective Capability of Italian Political Parties.- Chapter 5: The Donors’ Dilemma.- Chapter 6: The Financial Appeal of Political Parties: Looking for the Determinants of Donors’ Preferences.- Chapter 7: Conclusion: ‘Winter is Coming’ and Political Parties will be left out in the cold.