Democratic vision and online participatory spaces in the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle

Mosca, Lorenzo

doi:10.1057/s41269-018-0096-y

Cited by 45 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Rousseau's tools for direct citizen participation only allow for limited bottom-up engagement because the platform is designed to discourage deliberation and promote plebiscitarian-like participation (Deseriis 2017). The constant decrease in activists' participation on the Rousseau platform is a direct result of this plebiscitarian structure (Mosca 2018;Deseriis and Vittori 2019). On-line membership is coupled with off-line membership at the local level, where the meet-up system enjoys greater autonomy.…”

Section: The Failed Institutionalization Attempt (2013-2015) and The De-institutionalization Phase (2015-2017): The Plebiscitarian Movemementioning

confidence: 99%

Which organization for which party? An organizational analysis of the Five-star Movement

Vittori

2020

Contemporary Italian Politics

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While challenger parties are on the rise in Europe, there has been little attention paid so far to their organization. Even though new parties enjoying path-breaking electoral success soon after their foundation tend to lose votes at their second electoral contests, due among other things to their organizational structures, some parties stand as exceptions. Among them, the Five-star Movement is the most prominent such party in Europe. The party has undergone a number of major organizational changes in the last 10 years, which have halted its institutionalization process, but whose impact on electoral success were, at first sight, less relevant. How did the party deal with the issue of internal reforms and how did these internal reforms change the party structure? This article retraces the party's transformations and tests hypotheses related to three competing interpretations of the Movement's organization: those that see it as a business-firm party, a franchise party and a party movement. Eleven years after its foundation, I contend that the Movement should now be analysed as a 'plebiscitarian' movement party.

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Section: The Failed Institutionalization Attempt (2013-2015) and The De-institutionalization Phase (2015-2017): The Plebiscitarian Movemementioning

confidence: 99%

Which organization for which party? An organizational analysis of the Five-star Movement

Vittori

2020

Contemporary Italian Politics

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“…In other words, it is necessary to remember that technologies are not neutral and their usein one sense or anotheris a political act. Adopting these technologies to the logic of online deliberation, for example, and not to the aggregative logic of online direct democracy (Mosca 2018), would mean, moreover, empowering the voices of the people who are without voice CC-BY-NC-ND: Creative Commons License, 2020.…”

Section: Digital Socialism: a Challenge For Social Movements And Political Partiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Special Issue: Communicative Socialism/Digital Socialism, edited by Christian Fuchs (DOWNLOAD FULL ISSUE)

Fuchs

2020

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“…The top-down character of digital parties' internal democracy is most clearly seen in internal party referendums, what have perhaps become the most widely publicised form of online democracy in these parties. Since its foundation, Podemos has held 9 referendums and over 40 referendum consultations have been called by M5S (Mosca, 2018). Almost invariably, these consultations have yielded the results expected by the party's top brass, with landslide votes in favour of the option favoured by the leadership and few instances of rank-and-file rebellion.…”

Section: Online Referendumsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given these shortcomings, it should come as no surprise that participation in online consultations has dropped significantly as already seen in Figure 1 and 2. In the case of M5S for example, turnout in online votes averaged 33% between 2013 and 2014, but it had dropped to 14% in 2017 (Mosca, 2018). While Podemos has not experienced such a dramatic decrease in rank-and-file mobilization, participation has lagged behind the growth in party membership (Marcos, 2018).…”

Section: Going Back Tomentioning

confidence: 99%

Are digital parties more democratic than traditional parties? Evaluating Podemos and Movimento 5 Stelle’s online decision-making platforms

Gerbaudo

2019

Party Politics

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A number of Western European countries have recently seen the emergence of ‘digital parties’. This term refers to a new wave of political organisations committed to transforming intra-party democracy (IPD) through the adoption of online ‘participatory platforms’, sections of their official websites where registered members can debate and decide on various issues. In this article, I assess the democratic quality of online participatory platforms in the Five Star Movement in Italy and Podemos in Spain, examining various features embedded in them – discussions and proposals, elections of party officials and candidates and referendums – and evaluating their degree of inclusiveness, centralisation and institutionalisation. I argue that counter to their promise to introduce a more membership-controlled and inclusive democracy, IPD in digital parties is strongly top-down. What these formations offer is a plebiscitarian ‘reactive democracy’ where members have little say over the process and are mostly left with ratifying decisions taken by the party leadership. This state of affairs calls for a critical rethinking of digital technology’s potential for transforming IPD.

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Democratic vision and online participatory spaces in the Italian Movimento 5 Stelle

Cited by 45 publications

References 18 publications

Which organization for which party? An organizational analysis of the Five-star Movement

Which organization for which party? An organizational analysis of the Five-star Movement

Special Issue: Communicative Socialism/Digital Socialism, edited by Christian Fuchs (DOWNLOAD FULL ISSUE)

Are digital parties more democratic than traditional parties? Evaluating Podemos and Movimento 5 Stelle’s online decision-making platforms

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