After a two-year break due to the pandemic, the PRUF resumed the tradition of the annual party science symposium on 01 and 02 April 2022 and invited participants to the Haus der Universität. In a hybrid event format, participants from the fields of political science and law addressed the topic of "Digital Party Democracy" in five panels. Not least, the pandemic-related digitisation of political parties and the continuing increase in the importance of digital media provided an equally topical and urgent reason to take an in-depth look at the opportunities and challenges of digital decision-making in society, political parties and parliaments.
The first day of the event focused on the modern possibilities of digital interaction and communication between parties and their members, supporters and voters. How the inexorably advancing change in communication affects the established structures of the parties, their way of working and organising, what opportunities digital participation offers in the internal formation of party wills, but also what legal and practical limits currently exist and how the campaigning of the parties has adapted to the conditions of a digitalised society in the two pandemic and election campaign years 2020 and 2021, were discussed in four insightful panels, with stimulating lectures and insightful contributions from the plenary. The symposium was complemented on the second day of the event with a panel on the possibilities of digital will-forming in parliaments and, among other things, a review of the influence of the pandemic on the internal organisation of parliament to maintain the legislature's ability to act.
In the course of the two days of the event, the participants were not only able to exchange insights gained and deepen one or the other discussion, but also to appreciate the advantages of the (also informal) personal conversation with colleagues after two years of maintaining a polite distance due to the pandemic. PRUF looks back with pleasure on another successful symposium on party law, which once again underlined the great - also topical - relevance of the interdisciplinary consideration of pressing issues from society, politics and the state.
Photos: Jochen Müller / HHU
