Between Rejection and Adoption: A Comparative Study of I-Voting in Five European Democracies

This dissertation examines the divergent outcomes of internet voting (i-voting) adoption across five European democracies: the Netherlands, Norway, Switzerland, France, and Estonia. Although the internet revolution initially generated substantial optimism, i-voting remains only rarely adopted for politically binding elections. Using a qualitative comparative case study design, the dissertation investigates why i-voting trajectories have diverged so markedly across countries with broadly comparable starting conditions. It integrates four theories, namely the Multiple Streams Framework, Diffusion of Innovations, E-voting Mirabilis, and the Sociology of Expectations, in order to analyse each country’s experience. To explain these divergent outcomes, the dissertation introduces the “dials on the lock” mechanism. It argues that i-voting adoption is configurational and depends on the simultaneous alignment of five dials: problem frame, path dependency, actor agency, narrative, and policy window. Because the simultaneous alignment of all five dials is exceptionally rare, non-adoption remains the default outcome. Rejection, however, is not uniform. The Netherlands and Norway each rejected i-voting through different combinations of misaligned dials. Adoption outcomes also differ in scope. Estonia achieved full and sustained adoption for all voters across all elections, whereas France achieved only niche adoption for expatriate voters, a difference that can itself be traced to the problem frame. Switzerland, where several dials recurrently align but never at the same time, remains in a state of protracted experimentation. The dissertation makes a practical contribution by developing policy guidelines for European policy-makers. These guidelines treat i-voting adoption as a governance challenge that depends on the alignment of the dials and does not lend itself to simple replication across cases.