For social movements, the online world replicates traditional offline structures and networks of social capital

Many have hailed the rise of social media as the beginning of new ways of constructing social networks that are unconstrained by traditional forms of structure and organisation. In new research, Javier Sajuria examines social capital and social behavior via Twitter use in three campaigns in Chile, the UK, and the US. He finds that far from creating new social structures, traditional structures seen offline are replicated online

Green party members and grassroots democracy : a comparative analysis

When green parties emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, their political project included a strong commitment to a new type of internal party organisation, giving power to the 'grassroots'. With Green parties having become well-established in most West European party systems, has the vision of ‘grassroots democracy’ survived the party foundation stage? What drives the ongoing or waning commitment to grassroots democracy? Analysing party membership survey data from 15 parties collected in the early 2000s when many green parties had for the first time become involved in national government, we find that it is the social movement oriented, pacifist, left-wing membership that is most committed to grassroots democracy. It is the current involvement in social movements rather than past activity that is most important. Support for grassroots democracy is also stronger in "Latin Europe" and Greece but weaker in parties which have become established in parliament and government

Local means local, does it? Regional identification and preferences for local candidates

The literature on candidate selection has found that voters favour local candidates, as they are thought to be more apt to represent their constituents. An important caveat is that it requires that voters have knowledge of the candidates' characteristics, and to value localism. Previous research concentrates on candidate characteristics, leaving unanswered the question of who considers localism to be important when making their vote choices. This research addresses the gap by showing that regional identification has a strong relationship with preference for local candidates. We test this argument by analysing data from the British Election Survey 2015 using multilevel models. The results show that voters who feel stronger about their distinctive regional identities care significantly more about localism. Additionally, this effect is different when the party system includes a party that explicitly channels these feelings, suggesting that the advantage of local candidates is dependent on the context of party competition

Populist party supporters: informed, uninformed or misinformed?

Supporters of populist parties are often portrayed as politically naïve or misinformed, but to what extent does this image reflect reality? Drawing on a new study, Stijn van Kessel, Javier Sajuria and Steven M. Van Hauwaert present evidence that populist party supporters are not less informed than supporters of other parties. However, supporters of right-wing populist parties had a greater tendency to give incorrect answers to political knowledge questions, suggesting there are key differences between the characteristics of left-wing and right-wing populist voters

Connective Politics: An Analysis of the Role of the Internet on Social Capital and its Outcomes

This thesis aims to examine the notion that the Internet is affecting the way in which we behave socially and politically. In particular, it focuses on the analysis of social capital and its potential outcomes on voting behaviour. There are three main empirical outcomes of this thesis. First, it provides an structural analysis of online networks from three different cases, and compares the network structures of these cases with different theoretical expectations about social network behaviour. The results show that online structures follow a similar pattern that we could expect offline, emphasising the role of formal organisations in fostering bridging social capital. Second, the thesis introduces a new instrument for measuring social capital, the Online Resource Generator. This module was fielded in the third wave of the British Election Study 2015 and contains a thorough measure of access to social capital in a general way and both online and offline. The instrument responses are used to calculate individual level positions on latent dimension representing different forms of social capital. These latent variables are estimated using Bayesian Item Response Theory, and aim to provide a valid measure of individual levels of social capital. Third, the thesis examines the relationship between different forms of social capital and voting turnout. In particular, it focuses on the analysis of the European Parliament Election in 2014 and the UK General Election in 2015, using a multilevel approach for the latter. The main results show that online social capital is negatively associated with a higher likelihood of voting, while the combination of online and offline social capital has a positive association. In summary, this thesis provides compelling evidence against the dystopian claims about the internet, and shows how a balanced use of technology can improve people's individual levels of social capital

THE EMERGENCE OF POLITICAL DISCOURSE ON DIGITAL NETWORKS: THE CASE OF THE OCCUPY MOVEMENT

ABSTRACT How does political discourse spread in digital networks? Can we empirically test if certain conceptual frames of social movements have a correlate on their online discussion networks? Through an analysis of the Twitter data from the Occupy movement, this paper describes the formation of political discourse over time. Building on a priori set of concepts, derived from theoretical discussions about the movement and its roots, we analyze the data to observe when those concepts start to appear within the networks, who are those Twitter users responsible for them, and what are the patterns through which those concepts spread. Our findings show that, although there are some signs of opportunistic behavior among activists, most of them are central nodes from the onset of the network, and shape the discussions across time. These central activists do not only start the conversations around given frames, but also sustain over time and become key members of the network. From here, we aim to provide a thorough account of the "travel" of political discourse, and the correlate of online conversational networks with theoretical accounts of the movement

Green party members and grass-roots democracy: A Comparative Analysis

When Green parties emerged in the 1970s and 1980s, their political project included a strong commitment to a new type of internal party organization, giving power to the ‘grass roots’. With Green parties having become well established in most West European party systems, has the vision of ‘grass-roots democracy’ survived the party foundation stage? What drives the ongoing or waning commitment to grass-roots democracy? Analysing party membership survey data from 15 parties collected in the early 2000s when many Green parties had for the first time become involved in national government, we find that it is the social movement oriented, pacifist, left-wing membership that is most committed to grass-roots democracy. It is the current involvement in social movements rather than past activity that is most important. Support for grass-roots democracy is also stronger in ‘Latin Europe’ and Greece but weaker in parties which have become established in parliament and government

Who spoke at Labour's conference, who didn't, and what this tells us about a people's vote

Who gets to speak at UK party conferences? Zac Greene and Javier Sajuria argue that selection is made by the leadership in order to influence the debate and resulting policies. The exclusion of prominent Remain voices from Labour's 2018 conference therefore confirms the leadership's conviction to leave the EU