Publication details

Za oponou volebních kalkulaček: Přehled jejich mechanických atributů a možností pro jejich nastavení

Title in English Behind the Curtain of Voting Advice Applications: Overview of Their Mechanical Attributes and Options of Their Setup
Authors

NEMČOK Miroslav JAROŠ Bronislav SMOLKOVÁ Andrea

Year of publication 2016
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Acta Politologica
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Web http://acpo.vedeckecasopisy.cz/publicFiles/00991.pdf
Field Political sciences
Keywords Voting advice application; quality of VAA; variables of VAA; voting advice; mechanical setup; mechanical attributes of VAA
Description Voting advice applications (VAAs) are extremely fast growing phenomenon, which has become an inherent part of political campaigning and politics. The discussion about the variability of their internal mechanical setup and its relevance for determining the quality of generated voting advices is almost completely absent. This paper fills the blank space and summarizes and systematizes current knowledge about the consequences of the different setups of particular mechanical attributes of VAAs. The article analyzes the position of the authors of VAAs during the creation of the application and eight areas in which they have to choose one of the options that is crucially determining the resulting quality of their applications: (1) amount of the statements and their proper formulation/wording, (2) the means for selection of included issues and statements, (3) selection of the included political subjects, (4) means for party positioning in political space, (5) the calculation method used for generating voting advices, (6) the answer pattern offered to users, (7) possibility of assigning saliency for particular policy areas, and (8) the ways of presenting the results to users. All the options within the above mentioned areas are analyzed with the aim to their possible consequences for the quality of generated voting advices.
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