This article focuses on the nature and strength of the relationship between political parties and the state. Expanding on the analytical framework we developed earlier (van Biezen and Kopecký, 2007), we identify three different dimensions of the party–state linkage: the dependence of parties on the state, the management of parties by the state, and the capture of the state by parties. We provide an updated cross-national empirical analysis of the relationship between political parties and the state in contemporary European democracies, building on two recently developed datasets on party regulation and party patronage. Our analysis underscores the considerable importance of the state for political parties in general, but also highlights important differences between the older democracies, and the more recently established democracies that emerged in the third wave of democratization. We show that the different dimensions of the party–state linkage do not necessarily work in the same direction, which suggests that the assumption of a close relationship between parties and the state ultimately undermining the democratic legitimacy of political parties requires some qualification.
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