The Membership in the Italian Democratic Party

Several parties throughout the world are democratizing their internal life. The most recurrent tools to this aim are the primary elections to select candidates and party leaders. This process of democratization has accelerated the decline of the party members figures. For this reason, the new key actor has become the “selectorate”, in which the members seem to have lost power compared to the figure of supporters.

This paper tries to explain the role of the party members by using survey data relating to a web-survey carried out to the members of the Italian democratic party. We interviewed more than 13,000 members with regard to their relationship with the party (participation and activism), the use of information (including new communication technologies) and their role during the electoral campaign.