The Digital Party Political Organization and Online Democracy

Abstract

Over two centuries political parties have stood as one of influential organizations in humankind. Besides playing several functions such as capturing and exercising state power, political socialization and interest aggregation, these organizations have not been free from controversies. At the centre of these controversies is the mass-elite divide which Robert Michels referred to as Iron Law of Oligarchy. Michel’s revelation was a revelation that elite interests were not necessarily compatible with those of the mass. This observation notwithstanding, political parties have remained the very influential actors in politics irrespective of some speculations that globalization is likely to lead to the withering away of political parties and the nation-state.