Can the Internet Revitalize Political Parties? Podemos and the Shortcomings of Having a Primarily Online Organization

The Internet has been heralded as having the potential to ‘revitalize’ political parties by helping them respond to the participation demands of increasingly individualized citizens, who spurn collective identifications in favor of personalized political action (Margetts, 2006; Chadwick & Stromer-Galley, 2016). This argument is often illustrated with the example of Podemos, a ‘digital party’ that experienced rapid membership growth by opening up intra-party decisions virtually to anyone who registered online (Gerbaudo, 2019). Most research to date has focused on the early development of Podemos, leaving largely unexamined the longer-term effects of its loose, internet-based structures. This paper amends this gap by examining a set of organizational reforms Podemos has introduced to address shortcomings of having a primarily online organization. Drawing on an in-depth analysis of internal reviews, reform pamphlets, and conference resolutions, it shows that Podemos has gradually established new boundaries between affiliation categories and increased incentives to motivate participation of the most politically committed local activists. Lowering barriers of entry helped Podemos to quickly build a large membership base and thus create a sense of legitimacy for the fledgling party, but it was less useful for creating the organizational strength political parties need to survive and thrive in the long run.