Index of Digital Political Participation in Switzerland

The concept of “digital political participation” is to be captured with the help of an index in a standardised value range. The main focus will be on digital tools that enable effective political participation. All Swiss cantons and the national level are covered and there is potential to expand the index to selected cities and municipalities.

The project is led by the ZDA (Centre for Democracy Aarau, UZH) and the procivis think tank and is supported by the Stiftung Mercator Schweiz. We are introducing an index for Switzerland that takes stock of digital political participation and provides a comparable picture of the cantons. Such a monitoring system does not yet exist for Switzerland. It can serve as an incentive to experiment in the area of digital participation in Switzerland.

The concept of “digital political participation” is to be captured with the help of an index in a standardised value range. The main focus will be on those digital tools that enable effective political participation. All Swiss cantons and the national level are covered and there is potential to expand the index to selected cities and municipalities.

In our project, we make sure that the broadest possible inclusion of all segments of the population is taken into account. E-participation is not exclusively linked to Swiss citizenship. Moreover, offers of digital political participation do not only come from government agencies (top-down), but can also be offered by civil society organisations (bottom-up).

In a simple formula, digital political participation involves exchanges facilitated via the internet between the population, civil society organisations and government agencies at different stages of the political process.