Party Membership Role and Party Cartelization in Belgium and Italy: Two Faces of the Same Medal?

The cartel party model has triggered a burgeoning literature on its theoretical implications, and has been largely tested empirically. Nevertheless, the dimension of the model that concern the relationship between members and elites has been rather neglected, even though the membership role variables are the sole features of the cartel party that transcend the simple intensification of the previous catch-all model and that carry the most extensive explanatory power. This article explores the role of party membership and activism in contemporary parties in two West European party systems to assess in a quantitative way the applicability of the cartel party theory. We explore the relationship between party ideology and the degree of cartelization. By examining the relationship between all these different dimensions, we challenge the idea that a retrenched membership role and cartelization are linked processes.