Abstract

Despite its increasing importance, the phenomenon of party regulation has hitherto received relatively little systematic and comparative scholarly attention. The contributions to this special issue fill part of this lacuna by evaluating the various dimensions of party regulation and their impact on the parties and the party systems in post-authoritarian Southern Europe. This introduction discusses the main sources of party regulation – Constitutions, Party Laws and Party Finance Laws – and provides some preliminary conclusions on the cartelisation of party organisations and party systems.