The trade-offs of party digitalization

Abstract

In the past years, and especially with the COVID-19 crisis, political parties have undertaken numerous efforts to digitalize their organization. From enhancing online communication to celebrating party conferences online or increasing the widespread of online decision-making mechanisms. The variation in and remit of the extent of digitalization of party organizations suggests party digitalization is here to stay. Indeed, recent research has already shown how party digitalization is affecting both new and traditional parties (see Barberà et al. 2021). However, less is known about the potential shortcomings of party digitalization, to what extent parties might move the ordinary organizational life to the online environment or, more generally, how digitalization might be reshaping internal party politics. This panel welcomes case and comparative studies with both quantitative and qualitative methodologies assessing: a) the impact of digitalization on internal party politics; or b) the trade-offs of enhancing online over offline party organization c) the consequences, if any, of the digitalization process for the internal party democracy.

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