Party organizational change: an analytical framework * (Preliminary draft, please do not quote without authors' permission) Luciano Bardi, University of Pisa Enrico Calossi, European University Institute Eugenio Pizzimenti, University of Pisa Abstract This exploratory paper analyzes the evolution of party organizations in 9 European democracies, in the past 40 years, by combining a new-institutional approach to organizational change with the research method of the Political Party Database Project. To this end, as the PPDB collection of data and information is focused on the present, we extend its approach and methodology to the database provided by the Party Organizations Data Handbook (Katz, Mair 1992). The aim of the contribution is to verify empirically, through a diachronic analysis, Katz and Mair’s assumption about the ascendancy of the party in public office at the expenses of the other two faces of political parties (the central office and the party on the ground), as a consequence of party penetration of the State. Key-words New-institutionalism; party organization; functional field; institutionalization; incorporation. * Paper to be presented at the 111th APSA Annual Meeting (San Francisco, CA, September 3rd-6th 2015). Panel Title: How Party Organizations Shape Democratic Outcomes. 1