Party positions in voting advice applications and election manifestos : an analysis of deviations and their influence on the party´s image among voters

This thesis was conducted, to gain an insight on the influence of Voting Advice Applications (VAAs) on political party positioning. Therefore, this study deals with the issue of whether there are differences between the statements of parties in Voting Advice Applications and election programs. For this purpose, the statements, and answers in the German Voting Advice Application Wahl-O-Mat for the 2017 Bundestag elections were examined. It was found that each of the six parties ana-lysed had deviations between the Voting Advice Application and their own election programme. However, these did not result in a more moderate party image in their Voting Advice Application statements, as had been hypothesized. By addressing aspects in the Wahl-O-Mat that were partly not thematized in the election programs, a stronger positioning of the parties could be observed in the Voting Advice Application than in their election manifestos.