Are digital parties the future of party organization? A symposium on The Digital Party: Political Organisation and Online Democracy by Paolo Gerbaudo

Abstract

The impact of digital technology on politics has been profound. In just a few decades, the institutions, procedures and practices of democratic politics have been radically transformed. The way in which organizations and individuals are adapting to digital, and the consequences of these shifts for politics, are the subject of a growing sub-discipline devoted to the study of technology and politics. Yet, to date, surprisingly limited attention has been paid to the consequences of digital technology for party politics. Whilst a flurry of initial commentary was offered by Helen Margetts' notion of the 'cyber party' (2006), and scholars such as Gibson et al. (2004), Greffet (2013) and Kefford (2019) have traced the organizational implications of digital technology for parties, analysis so far has tended to focus on the consequences of digital for established parties. Studies have therefore looked at parties' adoption of websites and social media, the growth of digital campaigning techniques, and the implications of digital for membership. Largely absent within this literature has been the analysis of new parties that are entirely reliant upon digital for their operation. Paulo Gerbaudo's The Digital Party adopts such a focus, and therefore marks an important new contribution to this field. Offering an outline of what he deems to be 'the new organisational template' (2019: 4) of digital parties, he uses comparative international analysis to explore, in detail, the emergence of parties imbued with digital techniques and tools. Apparent in the form of the Pirate Party, Podemos, the Five Star Movement, and evident to a lesser event in France Insoumise and Momentum, Gerbaudo diagnoses a new form of digital organization that differs substantively from the 'mass party', 'catch-all' or 'cartel' parties of the past. Gerbaudo's digital parties exist primarily online, using websites and online discussion forums to organize. Unlike established parties, they have been designed to capitalize on the benefits that digital provides. Whilst so far few in number, the examples surveyed in the book show the potential for digital parties to transform party competition, with new parties emerging and rapidly achieving electoral success. In grasping precisely what it is that distinguishes these new digital parties from established parties that are adopting digital tools, Gerbaudo offers a multi-faceted conception. Specifying numerous traits, he contends that digital parties are those that: • '[P]romise to deliver a new politics supported by digital technology' that is 'more open to ordinary people, more immediate and direct, more authentic and transparent' (Ibid.: 4)

The Vlaams Belang: A Mass Party of the 21st Century

“…'' In this article, I specifically explore how massparty structures have been adapted through the use of modern digital tools. The effect of new technologies (social media, online communications, campaigning apps, among others) on political party organisations has been the subject of recent scholarly discussion with a focus on how they affect campaigns and party membership (Dommett et al, 2021;Kefford, 2018;McSwiney, 2020). Gerbaudo (2018) developed the concept of the "digital party" and Margetts (2006) explored the "cyber party."…”

Digitalization in Candidate Selection. Support and Resistance Within Established Political Parties in Germany

“…Indeed, existing studies suggest that political parties and their MPs somewhat adapted to the general trend of digitalization (Zittel, 2015;Lioy et al, 2019;Blasio and Viviani, 2020;Dommett et al, 2020;Gerbaudo, 2021), which has sometimes spurred changes in the party organization, interactions between different party levels and actors as well as the distribution of power. Regarding candidate selection, the question of digitalization as a potentially non-hierarchic process of selection has an impact on classical party features such as inclusion/exclusion or centralization/decentralization of the party decision-making (Barnea and Rahat, 2007;Kenig, 2009;Kernell, 2015;André et al, 2017;Cordero and Coller, 2018).…”