search engines need to be used as well, especially in the case of Unidas Podemos, which has a tool that is too simple, and Ciudadanos, which does not even have one.

One of the ideas proposed by this research, which none of the parties does at the present time, is to publish the extent of compliance and execution of electoral programmes, which would guarantee the accountability of these programmes and encourage politicians to take responsibility for the fulfilment or non-fulfilment of their campaign promises. This type of initiative is necessary in order to make electoral programmes more realistic and to compel political parties to focus more on the proposals they make.

Even though the Deliberation and Decision-making/Collaboration sections had shortcomings, some interesting initiatives carried out by the parties should be highlighted:

The Unidas Podemos platform where users can present initiatives and discuss them with other users.

Citizen consultation for certain decisions. Unidas Podemos uses this tool more often than the others, although the PSOE has also used this mechanism in the past.

Networks of followers to promote the party on social networks, which is something that the PSOE, Unidas Podemos, and Ciudadanos all have.

The platform for making complaints and suggestions of the PSOE, which allows the party to gain knowledge regarding their mistakes and possible improvements.

The initiative to support social causes of Unidas Podemos, entitled Impulsa, which promotes this type of action.

Political parties still need to further develop their openness and should provide incentives to do so. Not only must they encourage transparency in compliance with Law 19/2013 (which has yet to reach full compliance), but it is also necessary to strengthen initiatives related to the interaction of citizens in their processes. This will bring political parties closer to the people and allow them to benefit from collective knowledge. The opening of political parties must go hand in hand with technology, and therefore, digital innovation must be encouraged for this purpose.

A new path is being opened at the academic level in the study of political parties and their openness, which until now has focused more on their active publicity than other aspects. New facets are arising that need to be addressed, especially in collaboration with citizens, which is the issue that is least developed by the parties. Investigating processes such as those related to cooperation in the development of electoral programmes and citizen laboratories would be a highly interesting area study in future research.

5. Bibliographic references

Abu-Shanab, E. A. (2015). Reengineering the open government concept: An empirical support for a proposed model. Government Information Quarterly, 32(4), 453–463. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.07.002

Attard, J., Orlandi, F., Scerri, S., & Auer, S. (2015). A systematic review of open government data initiatives. Government Information Quarterly, 32(4), 399–418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2015.07.006