Political parties and their communities in the digital age: How new and established parties organise, mobilise, connect and appeal

Traditionally, parties have been analysed as the institution to link citizens. They build different kinds of communities around their programs, values and routines, and organize internal party decision-making in different ways (Harmel/Svåsand/Mjelde 2019). They connect citizens with each other, with the nation-state and beyond. Some would even argue that parties themselves are fully-fledged societies or communities (Débie 2012). Parties mobilize the electorate, provide channels for citizen participation and engage in the descriptive, substantive and emotional representation of voters. Two (if not even more) societal changes challenge – and inspire – the "community building" -role of established political parties in contemporary democracies: a.) In the last decade we observe a wave of new parties entering parliaments – and governments – on different state levels or new movements providing alternative forms for citizen engagement. These parties and movements differ not only regarding their position on the political spectrum, but also in terms of their genetic model, their organization, their financing or the way they appeal and are perceived. b.) While we observe the emergence of new parties on the meso-level, on the micro-level we also see activists with new demands and expectations appear who bring a new understanding of community to the world of party politics. Interaction among activists, networked and horizontal ways of getting engaged are organised by new parties, movements or their support groups (Shea and Green 2010) and online communities (Beyer 2014). Starting out from these observations, this section welcomes panels and papers that assess how new and established parties organize, mobilize, communicate and institutionalize in long-standing as well as young democracies. We are interested in panels and papers that seek to understand the effect of the changing nature of party organization, communication tools and party appeals on party-internal dynamics, party competition or even the quality of representative democracy. We also encourage panels and papers that question whether certain parties are better equipped to adjust to societal and political changes. Furthermore, we welcome panels and papers that include the demand side of political participation in and beyond the boundaries of parties. Our section aims to bring together different approaches and methodologies, including conceptual, comparative and case study analyses as well as the employment of both qualitative and quantitative methods and innovative methodologies like citizen science approaches. This section endorsed by the ECPR Standing Group on Political Parties welcomes panels and papers at the intersection of research on new parties, party organization, movements, citizen engagement and offline and online communities on topics like: ▪️ Parties as the institution to build communities on different levels in representative democracies. ▪️ Parties as communities of voters: what mobilizes them? ▪️ Parties as communities of members: what holds them together? ▪️ Parties as communities beyond the core group of members and activists. ▪️ Under what circumstances do online communities become party communities? ▪️ Established and new parties as communities for minorities. ▪️ Established and new parties as expad-communities ▪️ Parties as communities of values and routines ▪️ Under which circumstances are political parties stable and institutionalized communities – when do they break apart? 1. More than a Dash of Novelty: New Parties in Europe Close observers of party politics in Europe have been struck by the striking levels of electoral success achieved by newly created parties in recent years. In the past decade and a half, from Amsterdam to Zagreb and Reykjavik to Riga, new parties have not only emerged and achieved electoral success, but in some cases have entered government. This panel compares and contrasts the experience of different new parties from across the European continent, examining the similarities and differences in their appeals, the types of appeals these new parties have employed, and why some, but not all of these parties have managed to institutionalize. Moreover, the panel reflects on the impact of these new parties not just on their respective party systems, but on the functioning and health of democracy in contemporary Europe. 2. The cartel party model – still relevant? Katz & Mair’s (1995) seminal article on the cartel party model opened the first issue of Party Politics. The model was the trend Katz & Mair depicted, based upon data collected on West European and US parties in 1960-1990. The model has been discussed by several scholars since, but after almost three decades, it is time to take stock and access how the cartel party model has fared theoretically and empirically over the years. The panel welcomes parties analyzing and discussing whether and how parties empirically take on traits from the cartel party model and beyond. 3. Party Reform How parties organize has been the focus of seminal research in political science. However, it is only recently that the field has developed publicly available, large-scale comparative datasets, such as the Political Party Database (PPDB), that allows to compare detailed features of party organisations over time and across both parliamentary and presidential democracies (Scarrow, Webb, Poguntke 2017). This development offers the unique opportunity to investigate the extent of party agency in regards to organisational reform (Sikk and Köker 2023). In this panel, we welcome papers that explore in comparative perspective how and when parties develop or change strategies regarding internal organization (Harmel and Janda 1994, Gauja 2016). We also welcome papers that focus on the consequences of party-driven organisational reforms for electoral politics (Döring and Regel 2019), representation, or public policy (Wenzelburger and Zohlnhöfer 2021). 4. How parties organize Katz & Mair’s (1995) seminal article on how parties organize in the first issue of Party Politics was based upon data collected on West European and US parties in 1960-1990. It summed up current trends at the time and have over the course of the following three decades been supplemented both with new theoretical models and various types of party organizations. In this panel we welcome papers addressing how new types of parties organize, particularly in comparison to established parties and party types, and particularly with an emphasis on theoretically summing current trends. 5. When do citizens trust Political Parties? Political engagement in and beyond parties In the last decade we observe a wave of new parties entering parliaments – and governments – on different state levels or new movements providing alternative forms for citizens to get engaged. Populist parties on the far right or far left across Europe are only one example. This panel argues that citizens’ engagement in the decision-making processes of political parties matters for their trust in political parties. It seeks papers which conceptually or empirically explore the supply and/or demand side of participation options in and beyond political parties. We explicitly welcome papers which follow innovative methodologies like citizen science approaches. 6. Building Communities in the Digital Age: What matters for building a party community? Research at the intersection of party institutionalization (Harmel/Svasand/Mjelde 2019) and online communities (Weissenbach and Beyer 2022) emphasizes the role of values, routines, program and external perception for a political party to build stable communities. While we observe the decline of party membership, we also see the establishment of core groups of "active members" and the emergence of activists at the boundaries of political parties who bring a new understanding of (party) community to the world of party politics. This panel welcomes empirical and conceptual papers which address the interaction among (digital)activists and "traditional" party members and relate to research on online communities, networked and horizontal ways of getting engaged.