Political party identity change in the internet era: A case study of Malta

Abstract

A change or development in communication technologies has often featured in studies examining change in political parties. Nonetheless, change within political parties' identities has largely been ignored. This dissertations addresses this gap in the literature and seeks to answer the questions: How does technological innovation, in particular the Internet, affect party identity (change?) Malta was selected as a case study due to the small size of the political parties, which allows the researcher to analyse processes and events more closely. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the political elite of the two main political parties since they are the ones who can best explain change with their parties. The findings of this study show that the impact of the Internet on political parties' identities is extensive, since it affects their human face, organisations face, and policy face. Across these three faces, parties have both professionalised and democratised, and this has had a significant impact on political parties' issue uptake practices, organisation structure, and the range of supporters that identify themselves with the political parties under study. These findings make an important theoretical contribution that adds to the vast scholarly work on the Internet's affect on political parties.