ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the role of European political organizations (parties, trade unions, pressure groups and new social movements) in mobilizing the public and how far the arrival of new ICTs is helping to reshape such organizations, both in terms of their internal organization and, more broadly, as vehicles for political participation.1 In particular, the chapter has three aims. First, it provides a context for organizational development in the internet era by discussing trends in organizational mobilization. It assesses how far traditional collective forms of mobilization are in decline and whether new
forms of collective participation via loose protest networks and direct action are replacing traditional representative politics. Second, it examines the potential impact of the internet on political organizations from both an intra-and interorganizational perspective. Have new ICTs provided for additional organizational pluralism by allowing fringe causes a louder voice in European political systems? Do new technologies streamline organizational hierarchies and provide for greater internal democracy? Third, it analyzes the factors shaping the strategies underlying political organizations’ ICT
usage. Since ICTs can be used for a variety of different purposes, ranging from information storage to promoting interactive participation, the chapter seeks to develop an explanatory framework from which expectations of organizational behavior can be derived: what types of political organization will use the technology most extensively, and to what ends?
