DigiPartIndex - DigiPartIndex

This project introduced 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 a index in a standardised value range. The main focus will be on those digital tools that enable effective political participation. We will begin by covering all Swiss cantons. However, there is potential to expand the index to selected cities and municipalities, and also to assess the federal level.

What is meant by digital political participation in the narrower sense? The UN has defined e-participation – as a synonym for digital political participation – as a process that involves citizens in the design, decision-making and implementation of policies through information and communication technologies, with the aim of making the process participatory, inclusive and deliberative.

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).

The concept of “digital political participation” thus includes opportunities to make one’s voice heard during the various phases of the policy cycle (defining the problem, agenda-setting, formulation and decision-making, implementation, evaluation) with the help of information and communication technologies and to influence legally binding decisions or their preparation by state institutions. The corresponding digital tools and applications can, but do not necessarily have to be, provided by the state.

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.

Team and Partner

DigiPartIndex is funded by the programme “Digitalisation + Society” of the Mercator Foundation Switzerland. The project team is set up as a partnership between the Centre for Democracy Studies Aarau (ZDA) at the University of Zurich, the Procivis AG think tank and the Università della Svizzera italiana.