Inside the Party Digitalization and Intra-Party Democracy in Brothers of Italy

Contemporary debates on the future of democracy highlight the promise of digital technologies to revitalize political parties and strengthen intra-party democracy (IPD). Yet, research on populist radical right parties has largely focused on digital communication and electoral mobilization, paying far less attention to how these parties use digital tools within their internal organization. Addressing this gap, this paper presents a qualitative case study of Brothers of Italy (FdI)—a paradigmatic case of a rapidly institutionalized populist radical right party—based on semi-structured interviews with party members and activists, examining how digital technologies are embedded in internal processes of participation and consultation, and how such practices are perceived at the grassroots level.