ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|12 pages

Do political innovations matter?

Representative democracy at a crossroads
ByAgnès Alexandre-Collier, Alexandra Goujon, Guillaume Gourgues

part I|62 pages

Elite selection stream

chapter 2|17 pages

A new political elite in France

The end of professionalization?
ByDominique Andolfatto

chapter 4|14 pages

Primary elections for party leadership in Italy

A democratic innovation?
ByAntonella Seddone, Giulia Sandri, Fabio Sozzi

chapter 5|15 pages

Experimenting with open non-partisan primaries

LaPrimaire.org (2016–2017)
ByRémi Lefebvre

part II|75 pages

Governance stream

chapter 7|14 pages

Political innovations and democratic participation within Podemos in Spain

ByMathieu Petithomme

chapter 10|14 pages

Experimenting local civic activism in Ukraine

The case study of Strong Communities
ByAlexandra Goujon

part III|57 pages

Technological stream

chapter 11|15 pages

‘Tweeting back’

Innovative political contestation in viral posts on Twitter during the 2017 French presidential elections
ByAlex Frame, Gilles Brachotte

chapter 12|12 pages

Can big data reinvigorate political participation?

The case of the French presidential electoral campaign in 2017
ByAnaïs Théviot

chapter 14|13 pages

The challenge of innovating representative democracy

ByAnika Gauja