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The objective of the paper is to introduce the first Hungarian scientifically developed online voting advice application project Vokskabin (www.vokskabin.hu). It was established on the occasion of the Hungarian super election year 2014, when three elections parliamentary, the European Parliament and the municipal elections – took place. As a first step the study describes the development phase of the project as well as its structure and purpose. Furthermore, it analyses the user-statistics of the answered questionnaires, generated by the online-tool, for all three Hungarian elections and for the two questionnaires “Equality of men and women in Hungary” and “Roma in Hungary” which were developed 2015 to keep the civic education aspect of Vokskabin alive and addressing politically and socially relevant issues like gender equality and minority situation, also outside the election period. The paper raises two main questions: 1. Are there any regional differences of Vokskabin users’ behavior? 2. How does Vokskabin influence the voting behavior (with focus on the electoral participation) and the political knowledge? This part of the study is based on survey questionnaires addressed to the users of Vokskabin. In addition to the analysis of the statistics the paper aims to highlight the role of voting advice applications in general and the role of Vokskabin in particular, as means of civic education in the 21st century Hungarian society. 1. Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) One of the main achievements of political and social development in modern Europe lies in the improvement of the decision-making process which is now open not only to the members of limited groups privileged by birth (emperors, kings, consultants, aristocrats) but also to those concerned. The idea of social equality became the breeding ground for innumerable ideas and movements across the world (African-American civil rights movement, suffragettes) who fought for the largest possible degree of self-determination and responsibility for their own lives: for the right to vote. While there are still places where the fight for general, equal, free and secret elections is ongoing, in the modern knowledge-based societies of the 21st century it is not our right to vote but rather our ability to make an informed decision which is becoming uncertain to an ever-increasing degree. This right and ability, in addition to compliance with census rules and the drawing up of constituency boundaries, has the potential to exert the most influence on what political forces, parties or interest groups we elect into (legislative) power. It is therefore absolutely essential for us, 1 netPOL/Andrássy University Budapest, Pollack M. tér 3, H-1088 Budapest, melani.barlai@andrassyuni.hu 548 CEE e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2017 the electorate, to familiarise ourselves with the party manifestos and to pay attention to both the social issues that concern us and to the solutions that the parties propose for such issues. 1.1 International Examples In Europe, this thinking formed the basis for an initiative that was first implemented in the Netherlands, followed by Germany and Austria that uses easily accessible electronic tools to help people make their voting decisions in a simple but interactive way. The first voting guide was compiled by the Instituut Publiek en Politiek in the Netherlands in 1989. Initially it was paper-based but in 1998 it was put online. In 2002 Germany obtained the relevant licence and used the so-called Wahl-O-Mat for the first time at the general elections for the German parliament (Bundestagswahl).[4] The Wahl-O-Mat has since become one of the most successful achievements of the Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung.[5] Initially presented to political parties for completion, the questions on popular issues have been and still are being compiled by an independent group of researchers and young students at Heinrich Heine University.[13] The research team selected the final tests from questions where different answers were given by the political parties, i.e. where differences clearly showed in their views on social issues, politics or economics. 2009 saw great changes in the political voter guides in Germany since not just the political parties holding seats in the German parliament were entitled to share their views via the Wahl-O-Mat but also the parties registered for any elections, an approach that was adopted by the Hungarian Vokskabin application. The application was implemented in several German states in time for the state elections.[5] In Austria the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture [Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur] and the Donau-Universität Krems took upon themselves the task of initiating the creation of a publicly accessible VAA. In the context of the "Politikkabine" application, the main department for political communications [Department für Politische Kommunikation] at Donau-Universität is responsible for coordinating the journalists, statisticians and political scientists involved in the initiative. Compiled by the above department, the tests on popular issues which contain 20 to 25 questions provided a voting aid for the electorate preceding the Austrian elections.[7] The Politikkabine application was discontinued in 2014. The other popular VAA in Austria is Wahlkabine[27], which began in 2002, just like Wahl-O-Mat. As in Germany, the two Austrian VAAs aim to provide information to the Austrian people and present political content (election campaigns and party manifestos, policies and plans) to those interested. Similar to the method applied in Germany, the political parties and candidates are first required to respond to questions relating to social politics. Then the application compares their answers to the opinions of the voters who completed the test. Similar initiatives were started in Anglo-Saxon countries, which, apart from certain variations in methodology, also focus on providing guidance to the electorate. In 2012 Taylor Peck and Nick Boutelier undertook the seemingly insurmountable task of constantly monitoring economic matters, domestic affairs and foreign policy in the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and India, to establish the political views of those surveyed in these countries by means of tests similar to those previously mentioned. Nevertheless their methods differ fundamentally from the online VAA systems deployed in continental Europe as in their case, the political parties do not receive any tests or questions and the replies to the questions are inferred from communications in press conferences, party manifestos and interviews.[18] CEE e|Dem and e|Gov Days 2017 549 2. Creation of the Hungarian VAA, Vokskabin In Hungary the need for and thinking about the creation of a voting guide application emerged prior to the start of the Vokskabin project. Political analyses, research studies and statistics have been available in Hungary in the past and numerous research institutes dealt with the run-up to the elections, the presentation of political manifestos and their analyses. These include, inter alia, the Political Capital Policy Research & Consulting Institute, established in 2001, which focuses on analysis and consulting activities in Hungary[22], Irányt Politikai és Gazdaságkutató Intézet [Compass Institute for Politics and Economic Research], established in 2011, which likewise strives to contribute to the development of the political and economic culture of the country in an unambiguous manner[20] for the Institute of Word Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences [Magyar Tudományos Akadémia Világgazdasági Intézete], which deals with the impact that economic processes taking place on a global and EU level have for Hungary. Based on in-depth research work, it is precisely due to their level of detail and analytical character that these analyses failed and still fail to evolve into informative guides giving direction to large social groups. This was the reason why in 2006 the idea was born to create an interactive VAA which initially came into being as Választási Irányt [Vote Compass] for the 2010 general elections. The questions asked by Vote Compass were compiled by the market research institute Ipsos and the international Association for European Election Officials (ACEEEO). Based on this, six years ago voters received guidance in the form of tests containing 48 questions, to help them judge their political affiliation in a more confident manner.[1] Started in the multi-election year 2014, Vokskabin was initially composed of a team of political scientists, historians and students who also primarily followed the German and Austrian examples, thereby creating a VAA based on international collaboration with the specific feature that one of its supported languages is German, so those interested in Hungary who live in German-speaking areas can stay abreast with what is going on. In contrast to the US term Voting Advice Application, which implies the provision of voting advice, Vokskabin distances itself from this interpretation and defines itself as a scientific, non-partisan online voting advice application (abbreviated: VAA) with the primary objective of providing guidance in the most important popular issues and helping users decide on the positions of the surveyed parties and their own opinions, particularly in election periods. 2.1 Methodology of Vokskabin Those who complete the Vokskabin questionnaire get the chance to learn which political party and/or parties stand closest to or farthest from their own preferences. Via the Vokskabin online interface, visitors have the chance to respond to a set of 25 to 35 questions that change from time to time and are relevant in everyday life. The Vokskabin methodology follows the approach of the Austrian partner project POLITIKKABINE.AT. Importantly, this Austrian application does not record personal data, so as to ensure user anonymity. Based on

Voting advice applications in Hungary. Vokskabin in the multi-election year 2014 and beyond