Biographical note

Dr Jonathan Wheatley is a senior researcher at the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy. He is also lecturer at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Zurich. Dr Wheatley's research interests include democratization, state-building, parties and party systems in developing democracies and the impact of new forms of media and information communication technologies on party systems in established democracies. In addition to publishing a number of scholarly articles, Wheatley has also published a book entitled Georgia from National Awakening to Rose Revolution: Delayed Transition in the Former Soviet Union (Ashgate, 2005), Dr Fernando Mendez is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Research on Direct Democracy and Director of the e-Democracy centre, both based at the University of Zurich. He has been a Lecturer in Political Science on the Masters Programme at the University of Zurich and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology since 2007. Dr. Mendez holds a PhD in Political Science from the European University Institute, Florence. He has led various projects funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation on aspects of direct democracy and constitutional change. Dr. Mendez's academic interests include direct democracy, comparative federalism, European integration, and comparative public policy.