Democratic Procedures or Corporate Structure? Analysis of the Digital Background of the Czech Pirate Party

Abstract

Digital platforms dominate (part of) the public sphere and are increasingly being adopted by political parties. Digital platforms connect people to services (taxis, food delivery), using social media and Big Data to personalize their services.

Political parties adopt similar logic, and the digitalization of political parties takes two forms: the gradual adaptation of existing parties and the emergence of new (digital) parties. Current research on digital parties focuses mainly on Western European movements - the Spanish Podemos, the Italian Five Star Movement, and the German Pirate Party.

Turning attention to Eastern Europe and the case of the Czech Pirate Party would not only offer a glance at what some authors consider the original digital party family but also study a party, which not only successfully entered parliament (2017) but also government (2021). Focusing on the Czech Pirate Party, the paper offers an in-depth analysis of the intra-party democracy in this digital party.

Analysis will utilize 7 interviews with party members and analysis of party documents and websites The paper aims to answer the question about who holds the power in digital party and to contribute to the growing debate on digital parties.