Smarter Voting?

In the 2006 parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, more than 5 million people used online Voting Advice Applications (VAAs). Given that so many people use them, research about the use of VAAs is important to see what influence they have on democratic processes in the Netherlands. This thesis uses a survey with different manipulated conditions to separate the different elements of VAAs. These elements are the wording of the statements that are used, the integration of deliberative politics and the decision making processes and the non-rational processes of decision making that are triggered by answer scales. The results found that certain political subject are more sensitive to manipulation then others and that it is possible to integrate some elements of deliberation in VAAs. In conclusion VAAs turn out to be very manipulative and users should keep in mind that the results are very arbitrary. At the same time they could be improved by introducing more deliberative element to better reflect the political landscape of the Netherlands.