Party digitalization and members’ empowerment: A comparison of four Italian parties

The digitalization of political parties has often been approached from the perspective of political parties. Previous studies discuss the potential impact of technology on empowerment, but the users’ attitudes to this are largely unknown. To address this gap in the literature, our article analyses how party members view the empowerment potential of digital tools in their party. We use data from semi-structured interviews conducted in November and December 2023 with members of four Italian political parties: Brothers of Italy, Democratic Party, Five Star Movement, and Forza Italia. Employing an inductive approach, the coding process was data-driven, and identified four forms of empowerment. The analysis revealed significant, and in some cases counter-intuitive, similarities and differences between the parties examined.