Internet and Cyber Party Membership: the Case of the Belgian Pirate Party
(2015) Colloque « Belgium: The State of the Federation » — Location: Université de Liège (18.December.2015)
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- Abstract
- Since a few years, it has become possible to observe the development of cyber parties in western democracies. Their intensive use of internet to coordinate relations between members is supposed to attract new types of militant, interested by less hierarchical informal networks and sporadic political activities. Yet, the following question remains: What role(s) does the Internet play in the enrolment process within this kind of parties? Analyzing fifty in-depth interviews with Belgian Pirate Party’s members as well as members’ online activities, this paper shows that it is possible to distinguish two kinds of cyber parties’ members. On the one side, some members are passionate about information and communications technology and their party membership is their sole political activity. On the other side, some members are more distant users of the Internet and are active in plenty of postmodern political associations. These two divergent militant profiles are key elements to explain the divergence of views among Belgian Pirate Party’s members, but also the relative lack of political visibility of this political party due to difficulties in achieving coordination.
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Macq, H., & Jacquet, V. (2015). Internet and Cyber Party Membership: the Case of the Belgian Pirate Party. Colloque « Belgium: The State of the Federation », Université de Liège. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/84141