Platform Politics: Comparing the Five-Star Movement and Podemos

For new parties, interconnection with contemporary globalized society is indispensable, especially as it is facilitated by the pervasiveness of communication technologies. In the variety of their forms and aspirations, the new parties relate to society and politics in ways that are unprecedented and innovative in terms of forms and styles of political action. A first element of novelty concerns the parties’ nature, which, despite institutionalization, sees them continuing to reject traditional party discourses and to resist processes of normalization. A second element is the internal pressure to innovate their own political repertoires by developing software platforms as democratic innovations and technological simulacra of party organizations. In this chapter we compare the democratic affordances of two platforms: the M5s’ Rousseau platform and Podemos’ Participa Podemos. The results are interesting even if, from a normative perspective, they are disappointing.