Pirate Parties After Breakthrough in The European Multi-Level System

Recent scholarly attention has been directed towards the emergence of Pirate parties in EU countries and the examination of factors driving their success through actor-centered theories. However, a less-explored aspect is that three out of five seated Pirate parties – those in Czech Republic, Germany, and Sweden –have operated in countries with three governmental tiers (regional, national, EU) and secured their first parliamentary representation through second-order (regional or EU) elections. Research on second-order elections indicates that small, new, and niche parties tend to benefit from these institutional structures, providing multiple entry points, but the actual ability of many parties to exploit this to get established in the parliamentary arena on several levels is de facto limited. Keeping party type constant, we explore the different trajectories of all those Pirate parties in Europe that to date managed to gain parliamentary representation in multitier countries. Why did the Czech Pirate party succeed in leveraging its regional representation to access the national level, unlike the other two? What accounts for the variation? The article illustrates that an opportunity structure established by the European multi-level system helps Pirate parties mobilize voters around digital politics –issues that are neglected and overlooked by other parties. The findings also indicate that the spillover effects from second-order to national representation hinge on the domestic politicization of such issues, electoral cycles, and institutional regimes.