The Winding Road of Digital Democratic Innovations in Political Parties: A case study of Agorà Democratiche and the Italian Democratic Party

To address the ongoing crisis in political parties, scholars proposed integrating deliberative democracy processes and new technologies within party structures. However, for established political groups, that is not an easy road to take. What are the difficulties parties can encounter in adopting democratic innovations, and how do technologies like digital platforms may contribute? The paper delves into these issues by focusing on a specific case study, the Agorà Democratiche (tr. Democratic Agoras) within the Italian Democratic Party, the major center-left party in Italy. The project seemed highly innovative. Launched in July 2021 by then-Secretary Enrico Letta, the Agorà Democratiche aimed to engage party members and like-minded citizens in shaping the party's political agenda through deliberative democracy. It consisted of assemblies organized by party members or simple citizens, whether in-person and/or online, allowing anyone aligned with progressive values to participate. Each assembly generated up to five proposals, subject to online voting, and the party committed to incorporating the top 100 voted proposals into its program. However, the project stopped due to early political elections in 2022, the following defeat of the Democratic Party, and the change in its leadership. Before these events, though, the adoption of Agorà Democratiche encountered several challenges as well: limited participation from the party base, difficulty in connecting with civil society, and the incapacity to function as a genuine forum for thoughtful discussion. By connecting literature on intra-party democracy, e-participation systems, and democratic innovations, the paper investigates the root causes of these pitfalls. This work argues that democratic innovations do not always yield the desired outcomes for political parties in terms of participation and legitimacy. Participatory and deliberative processes might be hard to implement in established political groups that are accustomed to the same old political schemas. More specifically, I pinpoint four main obstacles encountered by Agorà Democratiche: the “culture of verticality” within the party, an unfavorable external context, the lack of institutionalization of the program and the ambiguous role played by technology. Eventually, if not handled carefully, new technologies and deliberative processes can worsen the existing crisis within political parties by falling short of expectations and further undermining the organization’s credibility. Methodologically, the paper adopts a qualitative approach, drawing on three types of sources. These include documents, web pages, and semi-structured interviews with party members, local leaders, and the staff managing the Agorà Democratiche under Secretary Letta. The paper provides insights that can benefit academics for future research and policymakers interested in implementing democratic innovations within their political communities.