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

Abstract

The digitalization of human life has impacted many aspects of politics in the last two decades. Intra-party decision-making is one of them. While new political parties appear to be rather native digital organizations, established parties are increasingly beginning to incorporate online tools into their internal processes. However, not much is known about how intra-party selectorates evaluate the digitalization of a crucial decision-making process. This study asks whether party members who participate in candidate selection support online consultations—or not. Using an original large-N dataset on the preferences of party members attending candidate selection assemblies for the German Bundestag, we determine variables that increase or decrease the likelihood to support the introduction of online consultations as part of intra-party democracy. Our results show that attitudes toward digitalization do not depend on a generational or a partisan factor, as might have been expected. Instead, we highlight that digitalization support is first and foremost related to, on the one hand, the seniority in the party, and, on the other, on one's preferences toward inclusion. We relate these findings to the distribution of powers and incentives within the party and discuss both the implications of these results and what they might mean for established parties trying to reform.

The Ideological Drivers Behind the Support for the Use of Direct Democracy among Voters and Parties of Benelux Countries

“…In contrast, parties that (are used to) win elections and are (highly) institutionalised have less incentives to implement disruptive tools that would change the status quo and eventually challenge their majority position. Yet, party organisational research has indicated that, when moderate, institutionalised parties suffer from several defeats or internal crises, they generally turn more favourable to changing the internal status quo and reforming their intra-party democracy by including more tools of direct participation in their organisation (Bloquet et al 2022;Scarrow 2017). Moreover, in some context, parties can hijack direct democracy and promote the use of referendums as an electoral strategy that serves legitimacy purposes or intends to increase their popularity (Gherghina 2019;Stoychev and Tomova 2019).…”