The digital transformation of party membership: How party members perceive online participation and adapt to it under pandemic circumstances

Analysing the effects of digital transformation on politics is a vast and fast-growing research field. We contribute to this research by assessing how party members perceived enforced digitalisation during the COVID-19 pandemic and how this affected their (non-)participation. Based on the DigiPM party member survey data, we investigate how individuals perceived participating in their organisations and how they dealt with peculiarities through the pandemic. The study provides insights into how the pandemic as an external shock is processed within parties and the role that routinised party-internal practices play in this regard. Methodologically, the article draws on bivariate analysis and multivariate regression models to explain stable member activity during the pandemic. Through this analysis, we contribute to the discussion on party membership change and the digital transformation of party organisations. Our analyses confirm the assumptions that the pandemic enforced digitalisation in German parties and changed party members’ engagement. Further, the results draw attention to the importance of intra-party socialisation for member participation.