1st Edition

Innovations, Reinvented Politics and Representative Democracy

    228 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    228 Pages 19 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    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

    Biography

    Agnès Alexandre-Collier is Professor of British Civilization and Politics at the University of Burgundy-Franche-Comté (Dijon, France) and Researcher at the Maison Française d'Oxford

    Alexandra Goujon is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Burgundy-Franche-Comté (Dijon, France) and Researcher at the CREDESPO.

    Guillaume Gourgues is an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Lyon II – Lumière (France) and Researcher at the TRIANGLE research centre.