Phase 7 – Evaluating the Answers

(3 - 4 weeks prior to the election)

You now have a lot of theses and even more answers. Quite possibly a very large amount of work. The next step is to select the most important theses. You can do this in another workshop or in your team.

• Go through every thesis and decide wether it should become part of the election compass. Ask yourselves:
  • Is this thesis controversial enough? Meaning: is it helpful in telling the parties apart?
  • Is this thesis still relevant? The focus of the political debate might shift quickly.
• At this stage, around 25 - 40 theses remain. To few and the results loose accuracy. To many and it will take too long for the voters to process them.
• Let your political experts read the answers. Do they get the feeling that some parties might have misunderstood a thesis? If so, talk to them and maybe rephrase the thesis (without altering the meaning, of course).