RT Journal Article
T1 Digital innovation in electoral campaigns: the case of microcredit in Podemos
A1 Lupato García, Fabio
A1 Jerez Novara, Ariel Ernesto
A1 Meloni, Marco
AB Crowdfunding  and  micro-donations  for  funding  politicalcampaigns have been extensively studied, especially in the US.However,  digital  participatoryfinancing  in  Europe,  with  adifferent regulatory context and relevant public funding, hasbeen investigated less. This article analyses the effects of aninnovative and digital-native electoral campaignfinancing tool:the microcredit. Microcredits consist of small“civil loans”that apolitical party requests from sympathizers tofinance the party’selectoral campaign. Based on the case study of the Spanish partyPodemos–thefirst one to implement it–for the period of 2015–2021, we use official data and party documents to explore theconsequences of microcredit. We argue,first, that microcredits(and partyfinancing) should be considered another way todifferentiate challenger parties from traditional ones. Second,there is a link between the number and amount of microcreditsand  the  political  context,  not  limited  to  good  electoralexpectations but also to the polarized political context. Third,microcredits change the structure of campaign funding. Finally,we point out a regulation problem that may deter other partiesfrom  adopting  this  mechanism  and  present  different  legalproblems (monitoring, data protection, or potential corruption),showing the regulatory issues for adapting to the digitalization ofpolitics.
PB Taylor & Francis
SN 0144-2872
SN 1470-1006
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/104138
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/104138
LA eng
NO Lupato, F. G., Jerez, A. and Meloni, M. (2023) ‘Digital innovation in electoral campaigns: the case of microcredit in Podemos’, Policy Studies, pp. 1–19. doi: 10.1080/01442872.2023.2203479.
DS Docta Complutense
RD 5 sept 2025