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

Abstract

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.

The failure of mainstream parties and the impact of new challenger parties in France, Italy and Spain

“…But the impersonal process of recruitment, and the absence or devaluation of any collective organs where people could interact, precisely because of the extensive use of Internet, have restored and even reinforced the atomization of political activity. Where no or limited interpersonal, direct, collective loci for expressing political will is provided, a party is reduced to an empty shellat the mercy of top-down plebiscitary practices (Gerbaudo, 2019a(Gerbaudo, , 2019b.…”

“…All three parties have practised the traditional modality in a rather peculiar way: local units are considered places for mobilization rather than loci for channelling members' demands. These units are disjointed from the decision-making process, safe for Podemos where in principle it is possible, while never practised (Pérez-Nievas et al, 2018;Gerbaudo, 2019b). Moreover, the Lrem enforces its use to promote activity from abovethrough so-called 'helpers'according to the needs of the leadership (Fretel, 2019).…”

“…Both Podomos and M5Sthe latter more frequently than the formerhave called on members to vote on various issues; Lrem has done so only once, and very recently, in January 2020, for the approval of a new statute. Turnout has rarely exceeded 50% in both M5S and Podemos (Deseriis and Vittori, 2019;Gerbaudo, 2019b). With the exception of the first call for the election of Pablo Iglesias in 2014 (when membership numbers were much fewer), Podemos members have no longer been very visible on the Internet: the average turnout, until late 2019, was 26% with a declining trend in the last period.…”

The Organizational Reform of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) from 2017–2019: Young, Female, and Digital?

“…Der digitale Charakter der Reformmaßnahme macht neuartige Begründungs-und Legitimationsmuster der Parteiakteure im Entscheidungsprozess erwartbar, die mit neuartigen Entwicklungen im Rahmen der digitalen Transformation von Politik und Gesellschaft zusammenhängen. 7 Digitale Kommunikationsinstrumente schüren Hoffnungen auf neue Möglichkeiten demokratischen Austauschs zwischen Parteien und ihren Unterstützer*innen (Jun 2009, S. 203) und könnten tief greifende Veränderungen der Organisationsstrukturen von Parteien nach sich ziehen (Chadwick und Stromer-Galley 2016), die allerdings aus demokratietheoretischer Perspektive auch kritisiert werden können (Gerbaudo 2019;Diehl 2018). In einer Phase, die rückblickend als Formationsphase digitalisierter Parteien gelten könnte, sind Erkenntnisse darüber, warum Parteien Reformen digitaler Art durchführen, daher besonders interessant.…”

Party innovation, hybridization and the crisis: the case of Podemos

“…9 Direct digital democracy was enhanced through several types of applications. For example, ‘Agora voting’ allows sympathizers to vote simultaneously on different issues using their computer or mobile phone; ‘Plaza Podemos’ sought to connect citizens and aggregate the ever more fragmented demands from civil society; and ‘appgree’ enables party members to choose specific issues for discussion, formulate questions, vote and express their preferences for decisions (Borge and Santamarina, 2015; Gerbaudo, 2015; Casero-Ripollés et al , 2016).…”