Erleichterte Partizipation für politische Organisationen? Eine Analyse der Einflussfaktoren auf die Online-Aktivitäten nationaler und internationaler Organisationen

Abstract

Online media enable new ways of participation not only for citizens but also for political organizations. There has been a lot of speculation about the actual use of those participatory options. This study examines online activities of political organizations both on a national and international level. It is investigated which online platforms those organizations actually use and what they do on those platforms. Furthermore, the influence of organizational characteristics such as political status, age, and type of membership on online activities is taken into account. As a result, the answer to the question, whether digitalization levels the playing field for political organizations or whether power structures of the ‘offline world’ are replicated in the online world is ‘as well as’. There is empirical evidence both for the normalization thesis of ‘politics as usual’ as well as for the thesis that organizations with less resources have better networking options through online media.