Smartvote
Encyclopedia
smartvote is a voting advice application
(VAA) for citizens in the forefront of elections
. In Switzerland
Politools Network (developer, owner and provider of smartvote) offers these services since 2003 and on the basis of project cooperations partly also in foreign countries (Bulgaria
2005, Scotland
2007).
questionnaire
of 30–70 questions about values
, attitudes
and political issues smartvote develops a political profile of interested voters. That profile will subsequently be compared with the ones of the candidates running for office in that election. That at the end a voter receives a list of candidates or party lists with the most similar political preferences and attitudes. For calculating the match values statistical methods are used as for example multidimensional scaling
.
in Switzerland VAAs has been offered to the public, especially smartvote, for the first time. At that time the offer was restricted to national parliament elections but in the meantime smartvote has been offered for many cantonal (state) and also local city elections. At the beginning the member of parliaments were sceptical vis-à-vis the VAA but today more than 80% of the candidates normally participate. With the national parliament elections 2007 smartvote became the most important reference for political positioning of politicians and candidates in the Swiss public.
The development is supported by a public research institution, namely the project of the National Center of Competence in Research: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy) of the University of Zurich
.
2005 Politools was a consultant in the development of a Bulgarian VAA koimipasva . In 2007 Politools contributed a part of their system to a Scottish VAA Holyrood2007 and further spreads of the tool are foreseen, even if the necessary financial resources are not yet secured completely. Since 2008 Politools co-develops a VAA for the European Parliament Elections of June 2009 - the so called EU Profiler in a consortium constisting of the European University Institute in Florence and the Dutch company Kieskompas .
Today smartvote is part of Politools Network, more exactly of Politools – Political Research Network that is a political independent association in the sense of art. 60ff. Civil Code with domicile in Bern.
Voting Advice Application
A voting advice application or voting aid application is an Internet application that helps voters find a party that stands closest to their preferences. VAAs are a new phenomenon in modern election campaigning....
(VAA) for citizens in the forefront of elections
Election
An election is a formal decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold public office. Elections have been the usual mechanism by which modern representative democracy operates since the 17th century. Elections may fill offices in the legislature, sometimes in the...
. In Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
Politools Network (developer, owner and provider of smartvote) offers these services since 2003 and on the basis of project cooperations partly also in foreign countries (Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
2005, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
2007).
Functioning
On the basis of a standardisedStandardization
Standardization is the process of developing and implementing technical standards.The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers , compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality....
questionnaire
Questionnaire
A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents. Although they are often designed for statistical analysis of the responses, this is not always the case...
of 30–70 questions about values
Value (ethics)
In ethics, value is a property of objects, including physical objects as well as abstract objects , representing their degree of importance....
, attitudes
Social behavior
In physics, physiology and sociology, social behavior is behavior directed towards society, or taking place between, members of the same species. Behavior such as predation which involves members of different species is not social...
and political issues smartvote develops a political profile of interested voters. That profile will subsequently be compared with the ones of the candidates running for office in that election. That at the end a voter receives a list of candidates or party lists with the most similar political preferences and attitudes. For calculating the match values statistical methods are used as for example multidimensional scaling
Multidimensional scaling
Multidimensional scaling is a set of related statistical techniques often used in information visualization for exploring similarities or dissimilarities in data. MDS is a special case of ordination. An MDS algorithm starts with a matrix of item–item similarities, then assigns a location to each...
.
Development
At the occasion of the parliament elections 2003Swiss federal election, 2003
Legislative elections in the Swiss Confederation were held on 19 October 2003. Although in Switzerland's peculiar political system, in which all four major parties form a coalition, it is very difficult to achieve a change of government, this election produced an upset in the strong showing of the...
in Switzerland VAAs has been offered to the public, especially smartvote, for the first time. At that time the offer was restricted to national parliament elections but in the meantime smartvote has been offered for many cantonal (state) and also local city elections. At the beginning the member of parliaments were sceptical vis-à-vis the VAA but today more than 80% of the candidates normally participate. With the national parliament elections 2007 smartvote became the most important reference for political positioning of politicians and candidates in the Swiss public.
The development is supported by a public research institution, namely the project of the National Center of Competence in Research: Challenges to Democracy in the 21st Century (NCCR Democracy) of the University of Zurich
University of Zurich
The University of Zurich , located in the city of Zurich, is the largest university in Switzerland, with over 25,000 students. It was founded in 1833 from the existing colleges of theology, law, medicine and a new faculty of philosophy....
.
2005 Politools was a consultant in the development of a Bulgarian VAA koimipasva . In 2007 Politools contributed a part of their system to a Scottish VAA Holyrood2007 and further spreads of the tool are foreseen, even if the necessary financial resources are not yet secured completely. Since 2008 Politools co-develops a VAA for the European Parliament Elections of June 2009 - the so called EU Profiler in a consortium constisting of the European University Institute in Florence and the Dutch company Kieskompas .
Owner
smartvote was a joint project of the University of Bern and the Gewerblich-Industriellen Berufsschule Bern at the beginning with the aim to advocate more transparent and independent Information in election campaigns in favour of the citizens.Today smartvote is part of Politools Network, more exactly of Politools – Political Research Network that is a political independent association in the sense of art. 60ff. Civil Code with domicile in Bern.
Literature
- Ladner, Andreas und Jan Fivaz, 2006. „Die Demokratie und das Internet - Online-Wahlhilfen als Vorläufer der E-Demokratie.“ Neue Zürcher Zeitung vom 24. Juli 2006, Nr. 169, S. 9. Online publiziert auf der Website der Schweizerischen Gesellschaft für Verwaltungswissenschaften.
- Leuthold Heinrich, Michael Hermann, Sara Irina Fabrikant, 2007. „Making the political landscape visible: mapping and analyzing voting patterns in an ideological space.“ Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 34(5): 785 – 807.
- Rouiller, Sébastien, Jan Fivaz, Daniel Schwarz und Albert Waaijenberg, 2004. Der Einsatz der Online-Wahlhilfe smartvote bei den kantonalen Wahlen im Thurgau (März 2004). Schlussbericht. Bern: politools.
- Trechsel, Alexander H., 2007. „Inclusiveness of old and new forms of citizens' electoral participation.“ Representation, 43(2):111 - 121.
External links
- www.smartvote.ch (in German, French, Italian, Rhaeto-Romanic, English)
- www.politools.net (in German)
- www.euprofiler.eu (in all official EU languages)
- www.eui.eu
- www.kieskompas.com (in Dutch and English)