How parties organise: the influence of digital political campaigning

How do political parties perceive and implement digital political campaigning? Despite the attention received globally by the topic from a regulatory perspective, little is known about how parties perceive this new on-line environment of political campaigning. Using data from a comparative survey of parliamentary parties across 27 European states collected by the DIGIEFFECT project (www.digieffect.eu), we provide new insights into the list of specific activities carried out by parties during digital electoral campaigns and we investigate the influence these have had on party organisations. Furthermore, by applying a novel risk analysis framework, we show how the risk governance associated with various activities and organisational changes is influenced by ideology, incumbency and party size. Our analysis hence contributes to the literature on party organisational strategies in the digital electoral arena.