The Left and Digital Politics: Political Parties from Platform Neoliberalism to Platform Socialism

Digital platforms are more than devices, algorithms, and websites. They organise platform societies as a result of the leadership of a fraction of the ruling class, the platform capitalists, and their allies in political institutions. We know that this leadership, or hegemony, fosters exploitation and inequalities. We also know that a politics of resistance is emerging among platform workers and communities around the digital commons.

What is less known is how the Left has been changing to have a say in Digital Politics. And within the Left, what do left-wing parties think and do about the digital transition and platform societies? The Left and Digital Politics answers these questions by developing an updated Gramscian critical theory of (counter-)hegemony in platform societies and a comparative analysis of the ideologies and practices of key European Left-wing parties.

Part I examines what opportunities exist to forge a new Digital Left through progressive networks connecting digital workers and devises a Gramscian approach to hegemony and resistance in platform societies.

Part II is an empirical study of six left-wing parties in France, Italy and Spain and theorises the emergence of five ideological approaches to the Digital: Platform Neoliberalism, seeing platforms as fuel for market competition; Lib Dem 4.0, conceiving platforms as magic sticks to forge consensus around liberal democracy; Social Lib Dem 4.0 portraying the digital transition as a social peacemaker to promote citizens' rights; Post Social Democracy, seeing platforms as toolkits to achieve economic cooperation and participatory democracies; Platform Socialism, envisioning digital spaces as a battlefield for advancing disruption. Case studies based on original interviews with party elites detail how these ideologies informed the strategic projects of parties, which either protect or challenge hegemony.

Part III has two steps which develop a critical theory of how parties can support the advancement of Platform Socialism. First, the book presents a spatial analysis of how left-wing parties occupy antagonistic positions in the struggles over hegemony in platform societies. Second, building on the Gramscian concept of the Modern Prince, the book proposes the Digital Princess*+ as the collective subject for advancing radical change: this is a collective political digital common to disrupt the hegemony of platform capitalism from below and from above.

The book provides a map of Left-wing ideas and practices which shape Digital Politics, a compass to uncover why some left-wing parties perform as barriers or allies of radical change, and an analytical toolkit for critical scholars and activists to open new routes towards Platform Socialism.