The Use and Consequences of Digital Platforms for Intra-Party Democracy: An Exploratory Analysis of Podemos and the British Labour Party

The analysis of the current European political context suggests an acceleration towards post- democratic scenarios (Crouch, 2004). Within a crisis of the whole representative democratic system, political parties are experiencing a double crisis, both of legitimacy and political participation (Scarrow et al., 2017; Ignazi, 2014). For this reason, parties are looking for processes, narratives and approaches that can face both crisis. Parties such as Podemos and Labour Party have chosen to implement intra-party democracy processes through digital platforms. This type of application offers an interesting field of analysis for scholars that are analysing the potential of digital participation, framing it as an opportunity for democratic deepening or, rather, as a threat to freedom of speech and public deliberation. Probably, as other previous innovations, the political possibilities of digital platforms are “neutral”, i.e. they are instruments that depend on their use. As Larry Diamond (2019: 20) argues, digital media was seen as a “great force of human empowerment and liberation” while now is perceived as “a major threat to democratic stability and human freedom”. If we apply it to political parties, are digital platforms a tool for deepening intra- party democracy or, rather, is another tool for party’s leadership control? Does it provide with new and innovative possibilities for membership (and citizens) participation or is merely a faster or cheaper way for organizing a political party? The aim of this paper is to analyse the impact of digital platforms on intra-party democracy. Considering the difficulties to measure and evaluate the democracy, in this paper we propose to adapt, as far as possible, the different indexes and dimensions commonly used for analysing democracies. Is it useful to apply these dimensions for understanding the digital platforms’ use and if it may (or may not) reinforce intra-party democracy? In which sense, or dimension, can we observe the impact of digital platforms’ use? In order to answers these questions, the paper starts with a theoretical discussion on the possibilities and limits of applying this type of dimensions and indicator for studying intra-party democracy and the digital impact. Then, the analysis will focus on two brief and empirical one-dimensional case studies, cherry-picked in consideration of their visibility and widely considered in the literature as best practices in digital participation within political parties: the Spanish party Podemos and the British Labour Party.