I-voting and the regulation of platform politics in European parties

Over the past decades, digital technologies have developed into tools of political deliberation and decision-making by states 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 decision-making within political parties. In order to address these questions, the paper bridges previous literature on digital politics, state electoral regulation and party organizational reforms. The aim is to better understand what is happening in this regard in a sample of parties in European countries (France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain), and to explore some of the factors that might be driving the digitalization process in some parties but not in others. The paper first maps the i-voting practices and platforms within political parties. Second, the paper assesses the adherence to democratic norms and technical standards in the regulation and practices of intra-party i-voting developed by the parties and countries under study. The paper then discusses the main systemic, party system and intra-organizational factors linked to the adoption of such democratic innovations. It also assesses the relevance of the different factors that might be enhancing or restraining the regulation and/or implementation of online decisions- making tools across parties. Based on a small N exploratory study, the paper aims at contributing to our understanding of the still relatively new concept of political organization in the digital era and of how ineffective regulations of i-voting negatively affect both the internal and external functions of parties as electoral actors and as membership organizations.