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"Vor dem Hintergrund der zunehmenden Herausforderungen an die intermediäre Leistung von Parteien wie dem seit Jahren zu beobachtenden Mitgliederschwund (van Biezen et al. 2012) und der zunehmenden sozialen und kommunikativen Komplexität der Gesellschaft (Lilleker et al. 2010; Neugebauer 2007; Welzel 2009) versuchen Parteien neue Anreize und Möglichkeiten zur Partizipation zu schaffen. Dabei experimentieren sie auch mit internetbasierten Beteiligungsverfahren." (Verlagsangabe)

Facing linkage problems, parties in Germany have started to respond to a changing media environment by reforming their internal structures of opinion forming and decision making, inter alia reacting to the rise of the social web and the successes of the Pirate Party whose party organization is to a large extent "digitalized". Whether and how established parties implement and adapt Internet tools, i.e., whether these could contribute to more participation of the "party on the ground" or whether they strengthen the "party in central office" is the focus of this article. The case study on the employment of an online platform for drafting a motion for the party convention of the German Social Democrats in December 2011 reveals that the "party in central office" controlled the online procedure as well as the processing of the results to a remarkable extent—thereby constraining the participatory potential of the tool. At the same time, the case study indicates a quality of online collaboration platforms that might limit the instrumentalization of these tools by the party elites in the long run and possibly re-empower the "party on the ground."

Facing severe linkage problems, parties have started to experiment with new channels for intra-party communication, such as collaborative online-platforms. According to the concept of "mediatization", implementing internet-applications of this kind can change the intra-party processes of opinion-forming and decision making, either by strengthening the party management or by empowering the members of the party in a bottom-up direction. A case study on the implementation of an online-platform prior to the party convention of the German Social Democrats in December, 2011, reveals that the party management controlled the online-procedure as well as the processing of the results to a remarkable extent -- thereby effectively constraining the participatory potential of the tool. At the same time, robust characteristics of the application emerge which might limit the instrumentalization of these platforms by the party elites in the long run, shifting power resources away from the party elites to the party's ground. Adapted from the source document.