Cyber-Parties’ Membership Between Empowerment and Pseudo-participation: The Cases of Podemos and the Five Star Movement

Recently, digital technologies have become part of the daily life of parties. The vanguard in the implementation of digital tools within party organisation is represented by Podemos in Spain and Movimento 5 Stelle in Italy. In particular, these two parties use digital technologies to provide new tools of participation for party members. This chapter critically assesses this attempt comparing the two cases, focusing on how parties framed online participation and to what extent they succeeded in promoting members' involvement in the party's decision-making. Overall, both parties give to members the opportunity to decide on many important party decisions. However, the formal power granted to members clashes with the predominance of the leadership in both organisations. To frame this contrasting tendency, we use the concept of 'pseudo-participation': digital tools are used to give the impression to members to participate in the party's decision-making, but, in reality, they cannot question neither the pre-eminence of the leadership nor have a say on the 'rules of the game'. Similarities and differences between the two cases are discussed.