Abstract
The so-called crisis of representation has formed the theoretical framework of many studies on media and democracy of the past thirty years. Many researches have highlighted the crisis of legitimacy and credibility of the ‘traditional’ parties (Katz & Mair, 2018) and communication was considered, at the same time, one of the causes of acceleration towards post-representative politics (Keane, 2013) but also an indispensable tool for re-connecting citizens to politics. Various phenomena have developed within this framework: a) the birth of political aggregations as a result of mobilization in the digital ecosystem; b) the development of digital platforms for democratic participation; c) the birth of parties defined as ‘digital’ or ‘platform’; and d) the growing centrality of digital political activism, both as a phenomenon within the digital communicative ecosystem (also in the context of social media) and as a result of the transformation of social movements. This article studies the role of platform parties as a space for the emergence of authoritarian tendencies (hyper-leadership) but also as an organizational opportunity for the development of new forms of digital activism. In particular, the article presents a research on the use of digital platforms (and their political and organizational consequences) by political parties in Italy, France, and Spain. The study shows the relationships between the evolution of digital ecosystems and the way in which political organization is organised, also highlighting how the new forms of mobilization and aggregation have opened up different yet interconnected public spaces.
Highlights
We try to highlight the relationships between the development of new organizational forms of politics and digital activism which, in turn, has intertwined both with forms of hyper-leadership with the emergence of reticular and horizontal political aggregations
Different phenomena emerged which are located on the complex ridge of relations between populism, new forms of digital activism, and ‘platformization’ processes of the public sphere
The transformation of the public sphere is considered as a frame element that at the same time impacts the evolution of the political parties—and, more generally, the forms of mobilisation of politics—and is influenced by the transformation of the logic of representation
Summary
We try to highlight the relationships between the development of new organizational forms of politics (such as the so-called platform parties) and digital activism which, in turn, has intertwined both with forms of hyper-leadership (such as occurred in some forms of populism) with the emergence of reticular and horizontal political aggregations. The cases of France, Italy, and Spain—despite their respective historical, cultural, and institutional peculiarities—constitute an important territory of analysis In these countries, different (sometimes even contradictory) phenomena emerged which are located on the complex ridge of relations between populism, new forms of digital activism, and ‘platformization’ processes of the public sphere. The relationships between digital parties, platform parties, and networked parties—starting from the three countries analysed—constitute an important test for social and political research In this scenario, the transformation of the public sphere is considered as a frame element that at the same time impacts the evolution of the political parties—and, more generally, the forms of mobilisation of politics—and is influenced by the transformation of the logic of representation
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