Political parties in the age of platforms : Electoral mobilizations, organizational transformations, and citizen initiatives

Résumé 0

The introduction to this issue of Réseaux on platform parties and political platforms presents recent work on the appropriation of digital platforms within political organizations. Three main types of platforms are identified: electoral mobilization platforms, established within existing parties; platforms that configure political organizations, which concern parties structured around digital technology, whose political project implies a departure from the organizational structures of traditional parties; and citizen platforms, which do away with the party form to organize the digital empowerment of citizens in the nomination of candidates for elections. The article then discusses the emergence of a new type of party, the platform party, theorized by Paolo Gerbaudo. It shows that the controversy around this notion reflects the tensions running through the field of digital social sciences. To conclude, a summary of the papers in the issue is provided.