Which Political Party Is a Good Fit for me?
RWTH students have developed a decision navigator for Bundestag elections.
With the next Bundestag elections fast approaching, voting advice formats such as the “Wahl-O-Mat” become very popular. However, citizens often find it hard to take a clear position on the issues featured there. A team led by Professor Rüdiger von Nitzsch from the Decision Theory and Financial Services Group at RWTH Aachen University has developed an alternative with the “Navi Parteiencheck.”
This new approach to helping voters choose between political parties is to compare how the different parties each weigh in on fundamental social goals. The project highlighted the following goals: equal opportunities, distributive justice, self-determination, environmental protection and nature conservation, and international responsibility. “We had students analyze the party platforms of all parties currently represented in the German Bundestag. They compared them with the personal goals of some of the current members of the German Bundestag, and they worked out how the parties rank the above five goals in their agenda,” Alexander Windges says in describing the RWTH group’s project he co-mentors.
How to Use the Navi Parteiencheck App
Anyone is welcome to use the political party check app to find the party most likely to share their personal values and goals. Please note that the app is only available in German. If you want to learn more about decision-making after that, simply follow the link to the “Entscheidungsnavi” training tool. Here, in so-called thematic projects, you can also see how the five goals mentioned above feature in all the relevant parties in more detail. For example, you can find out how the different parties think about CO2 reduction strategies.
The Navi Parteiencheck and the Decision Navigator are available via the following Website. Media companies interested in offering the Navi Parteiencheck to the users of their websites are welcome to contact the Navi Parteiencheck team.