Organizational Structures and Digital Pathways: How Party Models Shape Digitization Strategies

The organizational structure of political parties has long been one of the central interests of scholars. So much so, that the type of organization, along with its structures and the articulation of organizational roles, has represented the primary classificatory factor for political parties. However, starting from the late 20th century, the transformation of parties and their internal organization—marked by the weakening of traditional organizational structures—has also influenced academic research interests. Researchers began to shift their focus away from the role of organization, giving greater attention to the behavior of political actors. Rather than viewing the party as an organization, scholars started examining parties as components of a competitive party system. More emphasis was placed on inter-party relations than on intra-party dynamics. While some recent contributions have declared their intention to examine the impact of organizational aspects on the use of digital tools by political parties, to the best of our knowledge, a comprehensive framework explicitly considering the organization as the variable capable of explaining differences in the intensity, timing, and modalities of the digitization process is still lacking. This article, drawing from classical contributions to organizational theory—including, but not limited to, theories on political parties—aims to propose a theoretical framework that can guide empirical analysis. Additionally, it seeks to bridge the gap between organizational structures and the pathways of digital transformation, offering a roadmap for understanding how the internal configuration of a party affects its capacity to adopt, implement, and integrate digital technologies. By doing so, this framework provides both a tool for systematic investigation and a basis for comparing parties across different political and institutional contexts, ultimately deepening our understanding of the interplay between party organization and technological evolution.