Digital political participation as a special type of online participation

Annotation

The structural restructuring that occurs in the context of the digitalization of politics affects not only the institutional and value foundations of society, but also the processes of interaction between the state and citizens. In this case, citizens' participation in politics is no longer limited to traditional mechanisms and instruments, formal rules and procedures. Digital technologies provide them with additional opportunities to express and protect their personal interests, expanding the boundaries of political participation in the online sphere. In this regard, an important research issue is to identify the relationship and boundaries between traditional and digital political participation. To establish conceptual differences between the two types of participation, the author proposes to highlight specific features inherent exclusively to digital political participation (from a heterarchical decentralized structure and the absence of intermediaries in the form of political leaders, actors and institutions to an inclusive and game-like nature of participation). Based on the identified features, the author comes to the conclusion that digital political participation is a special independent type of participation carried out within the online environment and is a complex of various active and passive practices used by both individual and collective actors to attract and mobilize supporters, strengthen social ties, increase information awareness and form an agenda to influence political processes, including offline.

Keywords

• digitalization
• digital technologies
• traditional political participation
• political mobilization
• political communication
• online environment
• online activity
• digital political participation
• social networks
• digital services
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