Is the Age of Party Democracy Over or Are Parties Entering a New Renaissance?
Da-chi Liao1,Jiun-Chi Lin2,Michael J.Jensen3*
Citation : Da-chi Liao,Jiun-Chi Lin,Michael J.Jensen, Is the Age of Party Democracy Over or Are Parties Entering a New Renaissance? International Journal of Political Science 2018 , 4(2) : 15-26
Many scholars pointed out that the role of political parties has been declining in democratic countries. However, with the prevalence of digital media, does digital media become a new channel for parties to rebuild its relation to people? This paper aims to discuss the relationship between political parties and digital media. This paper examines our research questions by analyzing Facebook page data of Spanish party Podemos and Taiwanese party New Power Party (NPP). Both parties are selected based on a most different systems approach and have contested at least one national election. Results show two findings. Firstly, in the beginning, both parties have a low level of commenting in relation to liking. However, the level of commenting on Podemos page increases. It tells that both parties are not more dialogical in the launch phase. Secondly, results show that Podemos replies more often than NPP in times between party launch and the entry into its first campaign.