Swiss Review 3/2019

Swiss Review / May 2019 / No.3 ‘Smartspiders’: examples from two youth parties The ‘smartspiders’ for the Young SVP party in the canton of Bern and for the Young Greens in the canton of Zurich during the 2015 federal elections The graphs in the form of spider webs provided by smartvote are created from eight political objectives. A value of 100 indicates strong support for the subject, whilst a value of 0 represents the opposite. In 2015, the Young Green Party (ZH) presented a smartspider which showed support for the environment and a liberal society. For the Young SVP party (BE), ‘order and safety’ is shown to be an important value, indicating that this party is in favour of strict laws, a strong army and police force, and that it advocates values such as order and discipline. Smartspiders are created for individu- al candidates as well as parties. Videos and ‘smartspiders’ to help people vote Making politics clearer to encourage voting: this is the objective of the easyvote and smartvote initiatives. Easyvote is supported by the Swiss Federation of Youth Parliaments. It provides simplified content as an al- ternative to the official brochures and videos. “The most easily under- standable documents are the two video clips. Easyvote’s video is consid- eredevenmore straightforwardthanthat of theFederalCouncil,” states the programme. Thanks to this system, which has been tested in a Ticinese municipality, the turnout amongst 18–25 year-olds for the fed- eral referendum of 24 September 2017 exceeded that of the rest of the electorate, according to smartvote. “If a young person can be convinced to vote once, there is a greater chance that theywill vote again in the fu- ture,”explainsLionelMarquis,whonevertheless considers theeffectsof this programme to be “limited”. Introduced in 2003 by an association, smartvote works like a dat- ing website. Based on questionnaires filled out by candidates and par- ties, voters are presentedwith options whichmatch their chosen crite- ria. The political profile of candidates can then be viewed graphically (see examples opposite). “In2011, this systemwas verywidelyused,with more than amillion submissions,” notesMarquis. “In the last elections, in 2015, 30% of those who voted used this programme, including peo- ple whowould not have voted otherwise,” adds Nenad Stojanovic. According toMarquis, one criticismof smartvote “is that it reduces politics to a chart, whereas it should also be amatter of values and feel- ings”. In 2011, then National Councillor Jean-Christophe Schwaab wrote: “Smartvote is riddled with such major errors that it would be foolish to trust this software to fill out your ballot paper.” Smartvote: a neutral tool? Based on an algorithm, smartvote is suspected of rendering voting un- balanced. “In the 2011 federal elections, which took place after the Fuk- ushima catastrophe, the Green Liberals saw a strong increase in sup- port at the expense of the larger parties. Smartvote made this little-known party visible by suggesting it to people who had ticked both economy and ecology,” explains Marquis. The political scientist from Lausanne does not believe this tool will be able to positively in- fluence voter turnout. Nor does he think the electronic vote will have an impact: “it worksmore like a replacement for a postal vote”, he says. Can we do better? In Geneva, Professor Stojanovic’s team are pre- paring a test for November based on the Oregon model. This process was launched in a Swiss municipality with 20 citizens chosen at ran- dom. After listening to experts and various opinions, they will debate the subject of a vote. The groupwill draft a neutral presentation on the subject and a summary of the reasons for voting yes or no. “Thismodel provides a summary constructed by a group of ordinary individuals, whowill be seen as being closer to everyday citizens. It is also a real les- son in democracy,” adds the political scientist. (SH) www.easyvote.ch www.smartvote.ch 11 f o r e i g n p o l i c y R e s t r i c t i v e O p e n f i n a n c i a l p o l i c y R e s t r i c t i v e L i b e r a l e c o n o m y w e l f a r e s t a t e E x p a n d e d i m m i g r a t i o n p o l i c y E x t e n d e d e n v i r o m m e n t a l p r o t e c t i o n L a w & o r d e r L i b e r a l s o c i e t y f o r e i g n p o l i c y R e s t r i c t i v e O p e n f i n a n c i a l p o l i c y R e s t r i c t i v e L i b e r a l e c o n o m y L i b e r a l s o c i e t y i m m i g r a t i o n p o l i c y E x t e n d e d e n v i r o m m e n t a l p r o t e c t i o n L a w & o r d e r w e l f a r e s t a t e E x t e n d e d