The Regulation of E-Voting in European Countries and Parties

Over the past decades, digital technologies have developed into tools of political deliberation and decision-making by the state and parties alike (Chadwick, 2006, 2013; Koc-Michalska & Lilleker, 2016). However, while some states developed strict rules on how to regulate and govern the use of internet devices in electoral affairs, online voting or referendums, it is not clear to what extent such regulations also exist to govern online decisions within political parties. In order to address these questions, the paper bridges previous literature on digital politics, state electoral regulation and party organizations. The paper first offers a theoretical discussion of the democratic norms (participation, representation, competiveness, responsiveness and transparency) and technical aspects (security, verification process, data ownership and control) that need to be considered by both parties and states to achieve democratic and valid e-decision making. Next, the paper explores how e-decision making (mainly e-voting) is regulated in a sample of digitalized parties in European countries (Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Spain, and UK) and to what extent these respect democratic norms and incorporate technical aspects. The paper concludes with a discussion on to what degree can national level regulations be transferred into the intra-party context and what lessons can be learned from the discussed case studies to facilitate successful introduction of e-decision-making.