The author discusses the issue whether the internet and other electronic sources should be used for elections. Online-elections can make the electoral process not only less complex but also cheaper, thus the analysis faster and more reliable. The lower costs could, in turn, lead to a new impulse on direct-democracy-instruments. Comparing the USA, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland the article provides information about national strategies, discourses and problems, and shows the different political and cultural settings.

As low-voter-turnout continues to be a concern for the political system in the U.S., the idea online voting platforms (OVPs), to reduce access and use barriers, has been debated. Lowlevel elections in several states across the country have experimented with OVPs through U.S.based internet voting organization, Everyone Counts. These experiments resulted in both the confirmation of perceived benefits and problems. Surveying 196 U.S. citizens through Survey Sampling International, this study garnered respondents' feelings toward several factors correlated with voter-turnout, and the likelihood of adopting OVPs. Using the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology Use Model to frame the analysis, the data were analyzed using ols regression. I predicted that citizens would perceive OVPs as an improvement to the current system, and consequently, voter-turnout would increase if OVPs were available, especially among younger citizens (ages 18-44). The analyses illustrated that OVPs would not have a large impact on voter-turnout, and for some would even discourage participation. Furthermore, it was older respondents (ages 44+) who had a stronger positive correlation between effort expectancy and feeling empowered. I conclude by suggesting that low-voter-turnout might be best combated through efforts to improve political efficacy, and that accessibility to poll booths only accounts some of the story. / Master of Science / As fewer citizens in the U.S. vote in presidential elections, online voting platforms (OVPs) have been suggested as a way to increase accessibility and make voting less difficult to do. Local and state elections in several states across the country have experimented with OVPs through U.S.-based internet voting organization, Everyone Counts. These experiments resulted in both the confirmation of perceived benefits and problems. Surveying 196 U.S. citizens through Survey Sampling International, this study² sought out respondents’ feelings toward several factors correlated with voter-turnout, and the likelihood of adopting OVPs. A technology adoption theory, the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Technology Use, was used to frame the analysis. I predicted that citizens would perceive OVPs as an improvement to the current voting system, and consequently, more citizens would vote if OVPs were available, especially among younger citizens (ages 18-44). The analyses illustrated that OVPs would not have a large impact on voter-turnout, and would even discourage voting for some. I conclude by suggesting that lowvoter-turnout might be best combated through efforts to improve political efficacy, and that accessibility to poll booths only accounts some of the story.

L’agrégation des valeurs qui doivent être gardées confidentielles tout en garantissant la robustesse du processus et l’exactitude du résultat est nécessaire pour un nombre croissant d’applications. Divers types d’enquêtes, telles que les examens médicaux, les référendums, les élections, ainsi que les nouveaux services de Internet of Things, tels que la domotique, nécessitent l’agrégation de données confidentielles. En général,la confidentialité est assurée sur la base de tiers de confiance ou des promesses de cryptographie, dont les capacités ne peuvent être évaluées sans expertise.L’ambition de cette thèse est de réduire le besoin de confiance dans les autorités, de même que la technologie, et d’explorer les méthodes d’agrégations de données à grande échelle, qui garantissent un degré élevé de confidentialité et ne dépendent ni de tiers de confiance ni de cryptographie. Inspiré par BitTorrent et Bitcoin, les protocoles P2P sont considérés. La première contribution de cette thèse est l’extension du protocole d’agrégation distribuée BitBallot dans le but de couvrir les agrégations dans les réseaux P2P comprenant des pairs adversaires avec un comportement défaillant ou byzantin. Les changements introduits permettent éventuellement de maintenir un résultat précis en présence d’une minorité adversaire. Les limites de scalabilité rencontrées conduisent à la deuxième contribution dans le but de soutenir les agrégations à grande échelle. Inspiré par BitBallot et BitTorrent, un nouveau protocole distribué appelé ADVOKAT est proposé.Dans les deux protocoles, les pairs sont affectés aux noeuds feuilles d’un réseau de superposition d’une structure arborescente qui détermine le calcul des agrégats intermédiaires et restreint l’échange de données. La partition des données et du calcul entre un réseau de pairs équipotent limite le risque de violation de données et réduit le besoin de confiance dans les autorités. Les protocoles fournissent une couche middleware dont la flexibilité est démontrée par les applications de vote et de loterie. / Aggregation of values that need to be kept confidential while guaranteeing the robustness of the process and the correctness of the result is necessary for an increasing number of applications. Various kinds of surveys, such as medical ones, opinion polls, referendums, elections, as well as new services of the Internet of Things, such as home automation, require the aggregation of confidential data. In general, the confidentiality is ensured on the basis of trusted third parties or promises of cryptography, whose capacities cannot be assessed without expert knowledge.The ambition of this thesis is to reduce the need for trust in both authorities and technology and explore methods for large-scale data aggregations, that ensure a high degree of confidentiality and rely neither on trusted third parties nor solely on cryptography. Inspired by BitTorrent and Bitcoin, P2P protocols are considered.The first contribution of this thesis is the extension of the distributed aggregation protocol BitBallot with the objective to cover aggregations in P2P networks comprising adversarial peers with fail-stop or Byzantine behaviour. The introduced changes allow eventually to maintain an accurate result in presence of an adversarial minority.The encountered scalability limitations lead to the second contribution with the objective to support large-scale aggregations. Inspired by both BitBallot and BitTorrent, a novel distributed protocol called ADVOKAT is proposed.In both protocols, peers are assigned to leaf nodes of a tree overlay network which determines the computation of intermediate aggregates and restricts the exchange of data. The partition of data and computation among a network of equipotent peers limits the potential for data breaches and reduces the need for trust in authorities. The protocols provide a middleware layer whose flexibility is demonstrated by voting and lottery applications.

Dès la loi NRE de 2001, le législateur français s’est intéressé à l’utilisation de la voie électroniqueen période d’assemblée générale des actionnaires. Il laisse au pouvoir réglementaire la liberté deposer les modalités de toute forme d’interaction à distance entre la société anonyme et sesactionnaires. Le régime juridique allemand relatif aux assemblées générales a quant à lui étémodernisé en profondeur par la seule ARUG de 2009. Cette loi transpose la directiveeuropéenne 2007/36/CE du 11 juillet 2007 concernant l’exercice de certains droits desactionnaires de sociétés cotées. Ces textes ont conçu un actionnaire qui utiliserait la voieélectronique pour faciliter l’exercice de ses droits, un « cyber-actionnaire ». Si les textes françaisont bien pour objectif de faciliter l’exercice des droits de l’actionnaire, un nouveau cadre juridiquesemble s’être greffé sur la réglementation connue jusqu’alors. À trop chercher à s’en distinguer,notamment pour marquer la nouveauté, un régime juridique spécial semble s’être constitué, alorsque le droit allemand paraît aisément assimiler la voie électronique aux modes traditionnels decommunication. Or l’on ne fait pas face à une nouvelle catégorie d’actionnaires qui justifierait untraitement particulier. Le cyber-actionnaire n’est qu’un actionnaire exerçant par voie électroniqueses droits relatifs à l’information, à la communication et à la prise de décision collective enpériode d’assemblée générale. Pour s’en convaincre, la présente étude tire le bilan del’implication de la voie électronique en droit des sociétés par actions français et allemand. / This study looks into the introduction of electronic means in French and German company law.The French legislator already introduced the possibility of participating in shareholders annualgeneral meetings via electronic means in 2001. The law on New Economic Regulations led thegovernment to set the conditions of all the electronic communication between companies andtheir shareholders. In Germany, mainly the ARUG from 2009 modernized the law related to theAGM, by transposing the European directive from 11th July 2007 on the exercise of certain rightsof shareholders in listed companies. The new laws have a shareholder in mind, who would useelectronic means to facilitate the exercise of his rights before and during the AGM, a “cybershareholder”.While the German law seeks to assimilate the electronic communication with thetraditional correspondence, the varying French decrees seem to distinguish between a new legalregime and a traditional one. However, there is no need for a new category of shareholders,which could justify a special legal foundation. The cyber-shareholder is just a shareholderexercising his rights related to information, communication and collective decision-making in theAGM via electronic means.