Network parties and their impact on traditional party politics: new discussion paper available

New network parties and their programmes are mushrooming in many crisis-stricken countries in Europe

Summary

Policy fellow Katarzyna Anna Klimowicz evaluates a new phenomenon on the political scene in Europe: network parties. This paper identifies common features of network parties by looking at best practices and characteristics, especially in the organisational structure and political programmes.

New network parties and their programmes are mushrooming in many crisis-stricken countries in Europe. Innovative political formations that arose from social, grassroots and protest movements, such as Podemos at the national level and Barcelona en Comú at the local level (Spain), Partia Razem (Poland), or Píratar (Iceland), are fundamentally challenging the way public decision-making and civic engagement has been done in the past.

What do these parties have in common? What sets them apart from traditional politics and what is their added value? Our policy fellow Katarzyna Anna Klimowicz offers answers to these and other questions in her new discussion paper “Network parties: A new model to democratise and digitise party politics?”

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