Indirect Campaigning: Past, Present and Future of Voting Advice Applications

Abstract

Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) have become an integral part of many electoral campaigns in modern democracies. VAAs allow users to compare, on the Internet, their political preferences with the positions of parties and candidates prior to an election. In recent elections in Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Germany, more than a quarter of the respective electorates used such an online- tool. This contribution explains the logic behind VAAs, retraces their historical development and diffusion, discusses the most recent findings on the impact such tools can have on political behavior of citizens, as well as on political parties themselves, and finally offers a look into the future of online voting advice applications.