Présentation

This volume focuses on the issue of change in democratic politics in terms of experimental or actual innovations introduced either within political parties or outside the party system, involving citizen participation and mobilization.

Including a wide and diverse range of alternatives in the organization of groups, campaigning, conducting initiatives and enhancing practices, they not only question the relevance of traditional institutions in representing citizens’ values and interests, but also share a common goal which is precisely – and perhaps paradoxically – to reshape and invigorate representative democracy

This book is of key interest to scholars and students of party politics, elections/electoral studies, social movement and democratic innovations and more broadly to comparative politics, political theory and political sociology.

Sommaire

1. Do Political Innovations Matter? Representative democracy at a crossroads

Agnès Alexandre-Collier, Alexandra Goujon and Guillaume Gourgues

Part I: Elite selection stream

2. A New Political Elite in France: The end of professionalization?

Dominique Andolfatto

3. Does Party Democracy Impact American Politics? The Rise of the Amateur Republican during the 2016 US Presidential Cycle

François Vergniolle De Chantal

4. Primary Elections for Party Leadership in Italy: A Democratic innovation?

Giulia Sandri, Antonella Seddone and Fabio Sozzi

5. Experimenting with Open Non-Partisan Primaries: LaPrimaire.org (2016-2017)

Rémi Lefebvre

Part II: Governance stream

6. An Undying Breed? The Electoral Mobilization of Supporters’ Networks by the Conservative and Labour Parties in the UK

Agnès Alexandre-Collier and Emmanuelle Avril

7. Political Innovation and Democratic Participation within Podemos in Spain

Mathieu Petithomme

8. A ‘Popular Democracy’ without People? Citizens’ Distant Support for ‘Participatory Governance’ in a French town

Guillaume Gourgues and Clément Mabi

9. Privatizing or Renewing Politics? Para-partisan groups in the United States

Alix Meyer

10. Experimenting Local Civic Activism in Ukraine: The case study of Strong Communities

Alexandra Goujon

Part III: Technological stream

11. Tweeting Back: Innovative Political Contestation in Viral Posts on Twitter during the 2017 French Presidential Elections

Alex Frame and Gilles Brachotte

12. Can Big Data Reinvigorate Political Participation? The Case of the French presidential electoral campaign in 2017

Anaïs Théviot

13. The Digital Mobilization of the Discord Community Supporting Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise and Beppe Grillo’s Five Stars Movement

Paola Sedda

14. Conclusion: Lessons to draw from the comparison

Anika Gauja