A Dictionary of Dutchness

StemWijzer

The stemwijzer (vote indicator) is an online system to help people decide which party to vote for – a useful invention considering the plethora of political parties in the Nether- lands. For the 2006 election, the stemwijzer listed 30 different questions, including ‘should there be a ban on new mosques?’ and ‘should animal rights be incorporated into the constitution?’. The user ticks the ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’ box and at the end, the system processes the data and comes up with the name of the party you should vote for.