Digital light-touch organization suits today’s disorganized democracy
Evidence
It is particularly skilled at adapting itself to the new setting: its vast experience in articulating demands and its strong criticism of the current state of democracy perfectly match the spirit of our time. Organizationally, however, contemporary populism hardly resembles its historical precedents, with their dense networks of cooperatives, unions, and popular committees. To survive in the new environment, the populist left has adopted a light and digital form of organization. Contrary to an all-too-common view, however, the antiestablishment rhetoric, the strong leadership, the plebiscitarian modes of decision, the direct channels of communication and the weak party structures are not specific to populist actors. Rather, they characterize any new actor eager to thrive in our present environment—thus fostering the confusion in public debate, where Salvini, Macron, and Iglesias are often thrown together for this very reason. — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 83
Categorization
- XREF: Parallels the Bolivian MAS chapter: contemporary movements need digital organization to replace the dense networks of historical populism. — connects to: Disintermediation atomized society into isolated individuals — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 82; Digital party organization cannot replace vanished civil-society substructures — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 300; Digital participation platforms mask central control within antipolitical parties (+2 more)
Broader Connections
- Transparancy and accountability can enhance citizen participation in democracy.
#corroborates(0.78) — David E Pozen; Michael Schudson, Troubling Transparency- The History and…, 1565 - Digital participation platforms mask central control within antipolitical parties
#complicates(0.72) - Low-cost digital expression pulverizes radical politics in the absence of parties.
#complicates(0.70) — Anton Jäger, Hyperpolitics, 24